Jennifer the Damned

Book excerpt: " . . . a gripping read that reminds us why the preternatural is a dramatic field for our enjoyment and (dare we say it!) moral growth."-- Eleanor Nicholson, Editor, Ignatius Critical Editions: Dracula When a sixteen-year-old orphan vampire adopted by an order of nuns matures into her immortal, blood-sucking glory, all hell literally breaks loose. Yet with every rapturous taste of blood, Jennifer Carshaw cannot help but long for something even more exquisite: the capacity to experience true love. As she struggles to balance her murderous secret life with homework, cross-country practice, and her first boyfriend, Jennifer delves into the terrifying questions surrounding her inhuman existence, driven by the unexpectedly human need to understand why she is doomed to alife she never chose. Bridging the gap between the literary tradition of Bram Stoker's Dracula and the modern teen vampire romance made popular by the Twilight series, Jennifer the Damned reexamines the legendary monster as a conflicted and complex being. Jennifer is at once the quintessential vampire, embodying an unholy union of life and death; yet she is also asympathetic young woman full of spiritual anxieties, gifted with a limitless sense of ironic humor, and possessed of a beautifully persistenthope in the love she yearns for.