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Companions of the Night Kindle Edition

by Vivian Vande Velde (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 319 ratings
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The Edgar Award–winning author of Never Trust a Dead Man puts a terrifying spin on what should be a typical night in a small town.
 
Sixteen-year-old Kerry has got a tough night ahead of her. What begins as a simple lost-and-found trip to the laundromat to rescue her little brother’s stuffed koala bear turns into a nightmarish odyssey of murder, vampires, and—quite possibly—true love.
 
“Interview with a Vampire for the learner's permit set.” —The Horn Book
 
“A freshly written thriller, an offbeat love story, an engaging twist on the vampire novel, and an exciting tale of moral complexity . . . . Point [this] book at the Lois Duncan fans as well as Anne Rice followers, and get out of the way.” —The Bulletin
 
“[Vande Velde] is a master at taking traditional fairy-tale-like themes and making them fresh and totally unique. Companions of the Night . . . does that for the vampire story . . . . The narrative is tightly wound, keeping readers ready for excitement and action.” —Emma Carbone, New York Public Library
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    12 - 18 years
  2. Print length
    228 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    7 - 12
  5. Lexile measure
    870L
  6. Publisher
    HMH Books for Young Readers
  7. Publication date
    September 1, 2002
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  12. ISBN-13
    978-0152166694
  13. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The romantic horror genre reaches a new level of complexity in this novel, which manages to be simultaneously thought-provoking and blood-curdling. Kerry becomes the unwitting accomplice of an attractive, mysterious boy on the run, only to discover that he is a vampire. Can she trust her feelings for someone so alien to her? Or has she been "seduced by the glamour of evil"? An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, this was called "a tingly thriller" by Horn Book

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10?Kerry Nowicki, 16, never dreamed that vampires lived in her little town of Brockport, New York, let alone that she would become involved with a handsome one named Ethan. When she makes a late-night trip back to the laundromat to retrieve her little brother's stuffed bear, she interrupts the murderous plans of a vigilante committee that claims Ethan is one of the undead. Kerry tries to help him, so they assume that she is a vampire, too. When the two young people escape, Kerry's brother and father are kidnapped in retaliation, and a complicated game of cat-and-mouse follows. During the often harrowing experiences that follow, Kerry proves to be an intelligent, level-headed young woman. She recognizes the danger of her attraction to Ethan, but knows that she must trust him to help find her family. Ethan maintains the cunning and duplicity that readers might expect from a vampire. The plot is lively and intriguing, with an unexpected twist at the end. Readers might be tempted to compare this novel to Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (Delacorte, 1990), since many of the elements are similar. But the heroine of that story acts from a different motivation, making the books much different in terms of plot, theme, and tone. Companions of the Night should attract a loyal following of its own.?Marilyn Makowski, Greenwood High School, SC
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003K16PMI
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HMH Books for Young Readers; First edition (September 1, 2002)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2002
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3269 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 228 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 319 ratings

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Vivian Vande Velde

Vivian Vande Velde

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
319 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bess
5.0 out of 5 stars BEST, FAVORITE BOOK...EVER!!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
I first read this book back when I was a pre-teen, and it remained to be a favorite! It is perhaps the book I have re-read the most number of times. I even recommended the book to friends back then, and let them borrow mine. And they all returned to me with great feedback. Now I am 30+ years old, and decided to purchase this for my Kindle and read it again. I finished it in a day because I couldn't put it down - even though I still remember the story. It is so good! I can picture everything so vividly like a movie. And I am absolutely in love with Ethan and Kerry.

When I read Twilight years after my first encounter with this book, I was honestly a little disappointed. For a young vampire novel, "Companions of the Night" wins my heart. The interactions and romance here is also more believable, not overly sugared. It's a great mix of suspense, action, thrill and young emotions.
11 people found this helpful
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Kez
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a better love story than Twilight
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2015
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Honestly there isn't much more that I can add that the other 5 star reviews did not already hit on that perfectly describe this novel. Its simply fantastic.I first read this novel when i was probably a freshmen in highschool (26 now) and fell in love with it. i would read it every few months just because it was great. I let my niece borrow my copy a few years back and she lost it so I bought the Ebook for my kindle I just finished re reading this for the first time in probably 6+ years and i fell in love with it again. Its is a simply written but completely addictive book. I am tempted to re read it again just to get pulled into it again. its one of my favorite books by far. as for the Ebook copy... it has some typos in it EEK but the story is still amazing. I'm planning on buying the Hardback copy. i wish they would have made this into a movie instead! would have had more rational teens girls come out of that theater that's for sure.
5 people found this helpful
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Christine perrin
4.0 out of 5 stars Choices
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2013
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I loved the novel but was more stunned by the unexpected ending. If I was in the same situation I may have chosen a different path. It is just slightly difficult to understand her choice as well as part of me is agreeing with her decision
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Jarrod T Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Ordinary Vampire Tale
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2005
Verified Purchase
Several months ago I began reading Cirque Du Freak and got hooked on the vampire genre.

Companions of the night is not your ordinary vampire tale. The mystery of whether Ethan is or is not a vampire at the beginning of the book makes it intriguing. What really makes the novel interesting is that it is hard to tell who Ethan really is, how old Ethan really is, and whether or not he is on Kerry's side, or if she might become a vampire, or half-vampire by the end of the book.

Vivian Vande Velde does a good job keeping the book interesting from start to finish. There are always questions of "what if" all the way through the novel. I always like the different ways authors of these books decide to state what is "real" and fake for vampires and their kind. Vande Velde does this too and it makes you think for the briefest moment that maybe these vampires are for real.

The suspense is good up until the end. Kerry's dreamlike state and curiosity and passsion toward the vampire race makes the end worthwhile. I enjoyed this novel and look to read the other works of Vivian Vande Velde. Good book!
26 people found this helpful
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Keysha
3.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical vampire book
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2011
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A dear friend of mine told me that this book has been an all time favorite for her even though she's not the biggest fan of the vampire genre. So for I bought it for Christmas and it was not until January that I decided to start reading it.

When I finished reading the book even though the plot was very interesting it didn't satisfied my readers appetite, I thought when I was done I was just done and it didn't left that feeling that I've read an amazing story. But don't get me wrong the plot is good, has a lot of suspense and action but I must warned you if you are looking for romance or a love story aka Bella & Edward then this novel is not for you.

What I did like about the book is that Vivian creates a strong lead female. Kerry was a doer. She wasn't a damsel in distress, all the contraire she was the one trying to do the saving and she even get to do it several times in the book. She's very strong headed but you see her vulnerability because she's worried about her dad and her little brother and it affects her more their disappearance because her mother left them without a word and the fact of loosing her family makes her more determine to find them alive and though she know she's doing a bargain with a Vampire and that may even cost her life she's willing to sacrifice her life for her family.

About Ethan, I'm not sure if I liked him or hate him. Since he didn't trust a human with the knowledge of the existence of vampires so I believe he never trusted her fully not until the end but in the rest of the book he was cold and sarcastic but sometimes he was very nice to her so it was a bit confusing at times maybe it was self preservation thing.

The antagonist of the story is revealed almost at the end of the book at first that person tricks you to think that he's the victim of all this situation but slowly he reveals his real purpose and what is his end game and his reasoning for doing so is so evil it was almost you were dealing with psicopath and Vivian does a wonderful job describing the character.

The final scene of the story wasn't all that I really expected more because in this moments Kerry & Ethan understand their feeling for each others but what's funny for me is that I don't understand in which part of the book they felt in love *sighs* like I said, the love part is a secondary plot and is really not important.

I hope this review would help you and like I said if you are looking forward on reading suspense and action young adult book, this is the one, it has good characters, very well written plot but believe there's no romance here so if you are looking for that this may not be the book.
2 people found this helpful
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Caitlin Walsh
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2020
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The author says us so solidly in Kerry's head that it's hard to bnb put the book down. The author juggles the information and misinformation deftly--Kerry never knows quite what's going on, and is operating mostly based on lies and supposition, but she knows it and the author never forgets to let her due the best she can with it. The vampire is clever and charming and despicable in a fairly magnetic way; it's not hard to feel sorry for him in moments, but also know at every moment he made--and continues to make--his choices. Only real weakness is the antagonist, who never really comes to life in the way of the main pair. But he doesn't figure much. Hard to put down.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Lily
5.0 out of 5 stars I absolutely love this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2015
Verified Purchase
I read the French version of this book at least 12 years ago when I was a teenager. I didn't realized that they cut so much from the orginial English version. I absolutely love this book, the story still thrills me after all these years ! It's Twilight with a darker side and a less cheesy touch. I would recommend it to all the vampire romance fans out there !
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Mina
4.0 out of 5 stars Breathless chase through the night
Reviewed in Germany on March 2, 2014
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Synopsis [by Goodreads.com]

When Kerry’s little brother forgets his stuffed bear at the laundry, Kerry ventures out at 11:00 p.m. to retrieve it for him. The laundry is deserted and kind of spooky, and while she’s there three men burst in, dragging a bound and bloodied young man they insist is a vampire. Kerry helps him escape, only to be caught up in a desperate game between vampire hunters and their prey. [...]

Review

I was astounded to find out that this book is from 1996 - obviously because I'm so used to the contemporary YA-vampire-meets-innocent-girl-lit around. And since I was brought back to all kinds of fantasy by "Twilight" and a lot of its followers, I just deduced that there wasn't anything like it, or much better, already written. I'm obviously so mistaken.
And I have to say: this description of vampirism and the behavior of vampires shown in this book is so much more believable than anything "Edward" [I don't have to mention that I've grown out of Twilight rather fast - but I'm still thankful it brought me to UF, YA and PNR. I would have missed a lot.].

The story as such is told rather fast, it's a short book, about 200 pages and describes only a few nights, in which 16-year old Kerry helps a vampire escape his captors, who are just on the verge of killing him. That leads to her family getting entangled in the fight of vampires against their hunters and Kerry has to align herself with the vampire Ethan, to get her family back.
But boy are those few hours intense! And Ethan isn't all that. No prize and when Kerry is wondering, if he was going to kill her after they've gotten the vampire-hunters, I was just wondering the same. It all reminded me a bit of R. McKinley's "Sunshine" - vampires are really really different from humans and really really dangerous. And even if they aren't mindless beasts, from time to time they kill people and do not really sweat it. And on these premises, the interaction of innocent [but not stupid] Kerry with we-don't-know-how-old Ethan is thrilling to read about. It constantly feels as if something bad would happen any minute - and you never have any idea, if Ethan is trustworthy or not.
Anything that does and does not develop between those two is believable and I was more than happy about the end, that felt real to me as well. It's open and leaves room for "what could happen next?"-interpretation, but still the story is told and closed. For now.
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Rebecca
4.0 out of 5 stars a quick read that will please readers easily
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2011
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COMPANIONS OF THE NIGHT is no mind-blowing thriller, but it is a quick read that will please readers easily. I would've liked more back story, but it's still a pretty decent paranormal world that we are invited into.
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Chise
2.0 out of 5 stars I was expecting more (unpopular opinion)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2018
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I had very high hopes for this book and maybe that is why I found it disappointing. It looked like a horror novel about vampires and the premise seemed pretty interesting. Well, it is not for me, maybe if I had read it when I was a teenager I would have enjoyed it much more, I don't know.

This novel is a horror with a bit of paranormal romance. I understand that a novel can have both genres (and I like both of them) but in this particular case, I found it a bit weird, maybe because of the short length?

About the characters...I didn't like much any of them. The female character is annoying and changes her opinion and thinking all the time...I found her superficial and I couldn't connect with her. The male character is manipulative, secretive and a liar which looks good if it is a horror novel but if you want to do a bit of romance... it is confusing. Because the male character tells so many lies and they don't give many details, you don't get a clear picture of the vampire world. It can work if it is a horror novel but I really wanted to know more, so I found this part disappointing.

About the story, it started interesting but then, it got slow, boring and predictable. I was expecting for something exciting to happen but not much did and they spent a lot of time travelling around in a car, having pointless conversations.

So, being a 200-pages book I struggled to finish it because it didn't engage me. But it looks like this is an unpopular opinion, so if you get it, I hope you like it!
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