The Silver Kiss by Annette Curits Klause

Zoë’s life is falling apart; her mother is dying of cancer and her best friend, Lorraine, is moving away. She's a typical teenager dealing with terrible issues.So when the mysterious and handsome Simon comes along, Zoë who is feeling lonely and isolated is drawn to him. On one hand Simon is dark and charming, on the other hand he is a vampire. After the two connect, things in Zoe's life get strange.With a serial killer leaving his mark on her formerly quiet hometown, Zoe soon becomes leery of Simon. Even with fear and doubt surrounding the tender relationship, circumstances plunge the two closer together and Simon is the only thing Zoë can hold on to when everything else is falling apart. But what will become of him, her mother, her life? The Silver Kiss was simple yet a haunting little story unlike any vampire tale I’ve read.

Simon is dark and basically scary as hell. He not only carries the traditional vampire aspects, but can easily become mist moving with the air. Being mist carries its dangers for Simon, as he can become lost and completely unaware of the physical world. With death surrounding the entire theme of the book it only made sense that Simon (who I found in the beginning unlikable) was used as a metaphor for death. Not to fret though, there’s always a beautiful girl who changes the monster right?

Zoë’s description can only make you think of beauty, she has long slightly curly black hair and light gray eyes. She is thin with huge breasts……(yes that is frequently talked about in the story, not in a rude way it’s just pointed out to the reader a lot). Breasts aside I think Zoë’s character was a metaphor for life. Simon and Zoe apart created longing and loneliness, while together in their odd relationship created hope and ultimately serenity.

The Silver Kiss worked, even on a simple level, the writing was told through Simon and Zoë’s perspectives, shifting between the first and third person. At times this got very annoying but the story line was interesting and the shifting didn’t bother me to a point where I wanted to put the book down. Simon comes into Zoë’s life just at the right time in the book, she’s lonely in this point of the story but also dealing with a huge amount of anger. I think the anger makes Zoe brave, to a point where a normal girl would be running for the hills and not going toe-to-toe with a serial killer who may or may not be Simon. We as the reader know who the serial killer is mid-way through but Zoe learns after we do. The suspense is done well enough to carry you to the end of the book. Although we have unresolved issues in Zoe's family the depressing finale makes it not hard to draw conculsions of future outcomes. That said, I thought the ending was terribly sad, and written beautiful, as was most of the book from beginning to end- it’s funny how in one page I could read teenage banter yet have it be filled with words so haunting they vexed my mind……here’s my favorite line, thought by Zoë upon meeting Simon……..

With a sudden ache she realized he was beautiful. The tears that pricked her eyes broke his bonds, and he fled, while she sat and cried for all things lost.   (little sob...how sad was that?...)

I used the new cover in my review because I think it’s very pretty but it has that Twilight feel to it. This story is nothing like Twilight……Simon has some small resemblances to Edward with the animal thing, but besides that the outcome, the love story (if you can really call it that) doesn’t cross into the realm of obsessive, Zoë and Simon have a bittersweet sorrowful tale to share.

3.5/5 YA Vampire, romance, death