Night Road »

A. M. Jenkins is the award-winning author of Damage, Beating heart: A Ghost Story, and the Printz Honor Book Repossessed, and lives in Benbrook, Texas, with three sons, two cats, and two dogs. Jenkins received the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship for night road.

Accidents happen.

Jenkins Someone had lost control and killed without meaning to.

Cole may look like an average teen, but a century of nourishing himself on blood has taught him an extraordinary level of caution and control. He's a master of life on the road and he thinks he's prepared for anything. But not everyone is as careful as he is, and Cole is about to learn that even the best of plans can go wrong. . . .

Publishers Weekly

Trading demonic possession for vampirism, Jenkins (Repossessed) explores the existential crises of a clan of "hemovores," or "hemes." In her world, hemes feed on humans or "omnis" (short for omnivores), but do so with restraint-regular, controlled feedings prevent their animal "Thirst" from taking over. Cole and a bighearted heme, Sandor, embark on a road trip to train Gordon, a naïve, college-age "accident" who has recently joined their ranks, and help him adjust to his current state. Cole displays monk-like self-discipline and denial as he models the lonely, endless nightlife of the heme for Gordon. ("You're a parasite, not a predator," scolds Cole when Gordon realizes he could take advantage of his victim's entranced state during a feeding. "Our lives are built on their backs, and we owe them civility at least.") As they travel, the hemes debate their ability to die, whether they possess souls and the futility of dating; the appearance of a rogue heme provides dramatic tension. Save a few minor female hemes, Jenkins's world is male-dominated, which may turn off some readers (Cole describes subservient omni groupies as "young people who read too much Anne Rice"). But overall, Jenkins provides a page-turner and a fresh, intriguing view of the vampiric "life." Ages 12-up. (June)

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