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Summary: The life of a Vampire.
Review: I got the book In the forests of the Night as a late birthday present, 2 days ago. At first, i wasnt too sure who was Risika, or Rachel, but once the story became clear, at the second chapter or so, I fell completely in love with the book. I finished it in two hours. Risika before known as Rachel, is three hundred years old. she was killed in 1701 by Ather, who also becomes her blood mother, meaning that Risika is as powerful, or even more powerful than Ather. Aubrey is her rival. She hunts the nights to feed on humans. She seeks revenge on Aubrey for he killed her brtoher, but Aubrey is stong, and she fails a couple of times. At the end of the book, something unxepected (wont spoil it) happens, witch makes the book even better. Its a really good read. I must of read it about five times now, and can't get enough of it. After reading it, you might even feel as if you are a vampire, you are Risika, fighting for the shread of humanity you have left one second, and the next, admnitting to yourself that you are a vampire and cannot change that, seeking revenge for more than 300 years...
Rating: 
Summary: WOW! A teen author who actually writes a GOOD book....
Review: This book is called In Forests of the Night. This book is by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. At age thirteen-THIRTEEN!-xshe wrote and published this book. Two years later, she wrote another book, which I haven't read yet.
Others have said her vocabulary is great but her books aren't "matured" yet. Well, yeah, her vocab's pretty good for a thirteen year old but her style completely blows me away. She's very talented and although we spend a very little time of the main character's life, we learn more than enough to understand Rachel, or Risika.
The main character in this book is Risika. She's a three hundred year old vampire. In this book, it alternates telling what's happening to her now, and then back to 1701, when she first became a vampire. People say that the author of this book did a terrible job, but I think she excelled at her story-telling. The only reason I gave her 4 stars instead of five was that I wanted the story to keep going. It was a little too short for my taste, but it got the message across: You can never forget who you once were.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad first novel, but still lacking something
Review: When I was handed this novel and told that it was written when the author was 13, I didn't believe it. Even after reading it, I have a hard time believing the first draft was written when she was 13. For her age the book is phenomenal.The story is well woven, and switches pretty well between the past, when Risika was the human Rachel, and the present, which revolves around and unsettled feud with the fellow vampire Audbrey. My biggest complaints are the plot and the ending. If you removed the flashbacks the plot is very, very basic. After visiting her favorite caged tiger, Risika stops in a town to feed for the night and steps on the toes of Aubrey, her enemy. This creates a domino effect, setting loose a chain of events that leads to a showdown with Aubrey. In a way you can see the plot coming, and you have a pretty good idea of how the final fight will work out. This ties into the ending, there's a surprise that you may or may not be expecting, but once it's revealed, Atwater-Rhodes doesn't explore it. Risika gets up and goes about her life. As a first novel it's a promising start. I think if she wrote a follow up to it, detailing what happens to the characters it would help tie in the novel better.
Rating: 
Summary: I sincerly hope that she becomes better...
Review: ...because she does have skills but this book was an embarrassment. The book was short and the main character, Rachel a.k.a Risika supposedly had centuries of a past of which, for the most part, were absent in the book. And for Risika to be hundreds of years old, she seems to have gained nearly no wisdom or greater knowledge than when she was a teenager in the 1700's. She may be immortal and her physical appearance to be the same as that she had years ago, but her mind has to have developed in some way. On the other hand, the style Amelia Atwater-Rhodes uses is poetic and very easy to follow. Also, the dark atmosphere was well constructed. I liked Aubrey as a character and the fight scenes between him and Risika were okay, though short. So there's the two stars-for her style of writing and some action between two okay characters. Go read it and think about it anyway you want. Luckily, the paperback version is out.
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Summary: Author, author, burning bright --
Review: All throughout the reading of this book, in the back of my mind I kept remembering that its author was only 13 years old at the time of writing it. That fact alone blows me away, as Atwater-Rhodes's command of language at 13 was better than most people's is at 2 and 3 times her age! Almost more than a novel, this book is sort of the "journal" of Risika, known as Rachel before being changed into a vampire three hundred years ago, and her long-standing power struggle/feud with the vampire Aubrey, a man with black hair and a blacker heart that was responsible for leading the vampire Ather to Rachel in 1701. Ather changed Rachel to a vampire even as Aubrey murdered Alexander (Rachel's twin brother), and as we read on we learn that these are only the beginnings of the terrible things Aubrey has done to Risika over 300 years' time. Finally, one incident pushes Risika over the edge, and she must confront Aubrey at last, knowing that if they fight it is very likely that one of them won't come out of it alive. I liked this book, and am reading the sequel now. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes writes well and gives you a great visual sense of what's going on; you can picture in your mind the characters, settings, and action. Again, for being a girl of 13 when she wrote it (she's now 17 and on her 4th novel), "In the Forests of the Night" has some deep thoughts about life and death, humanity and the lack of humanity. Being now halfway through the sequel, "Demon in My View" (written two years later when the author was 15), I can already see that Atwater-Rhodes's talent only grows, her characters becoming even more 3-dimensional, their relationships more complex. I look forward to reading all 4 books in the series, as well as any others this soon-to-be-major talent in supernatural fiction may write.
Rating:
Summary: " In the forests of the night"
Review: I liked this book because it cought mt attention right from the start. The fact that it was about vampires was on the plus side because they are my favorite kind of fantasy. The book was recommend by a friend abd in the end she was right it was a very good book indeed. this kind of a book is my favorite for its not like reality insome ways it is but it has a side that we dont see today. it not just another persons life story kind of book.
To ask the question "what was the best or worse part of the book" is a crime. Theres no one good or bad part and besides its like telling you the hightlights of the story witch you most look fowred to. TO come close to the question i would have to tell you when the character gets her long owed revenge. with a sprinkle of suprises at the end. as for the book itself it was spectacular, for she wrote it when she was 13. she has more books that are kind of a series.
The 2 story elements that were most vivd were the characters and settings. one character was named Risika the main character, she was explained as haveing old golden hair and black eyes for when she died they became that way along with her fair skin. personality was also in check. as for the scene it was in a vamperic bar called "Las noches" it is very dark and its walls are coverd in mirrors. dont ask me why becuase they cant see themselfs anyway. there tables where draped in bloodred cloths and whatever wall that wasent coverd in mirror was black, kinda like the bar area. still the book explains it much better for i am not a writer.
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Summary: not perfect......
Review: I read In The Forests Of The Night with an eye to plausibility, and most of the time was not disappointed. Though there were spots in which I thought the plot was vague, overall it's an excellent first novel that sticks together well. It reminded me in parts of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles particularly. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes has a good turn of phrase and a good sense of the dramatic as well. If I had one major criticism, it would be that the main character, Risika, is not very maturely developed-- you'd think after three hundred years she would know more about herself and the people around her. This is probably just a by-product of the author's young age, though, and it doesn't damage the story too severely. As a teen writer myself, I think it's important to see a young writer's work published, especially in such a growing field, and in a field of such interest to many teenagers. I'll be very interested in reading anything else Amelia Atwater-Rhodes publishes in the future; I think this book probably only marks the beginning of her writing career.
Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: I have to review this book on two levels: the first, reviewing only this one book; and the second, reviewing this book in terms of how it stands up against her other books.
In the Forests of the Night details a brief encounter between a 300-year-old vampire and her two-thousand-year-old rival. Risika, the protagonist, is presented to us on several different levels: as a human (called Rachel), as a young vampire, and as a mature vampire. Rachel the human is said to be timid, but then she does things like sneaks out of the house and snaps at Aubrey, the vamp who will later become her rival. Risika the young vampire is weak, confused, and still very much prey. She returns to home and Aubrey bullies her, giving her a cut across her chest and forcing her to see that her old life is gone forever. Risika the mature vampire is strong, bold, and yet at the same time timid and still afraid of Aubrey. She is also more than a little immature--a byproduct, I believe, of the author's own immaturity.
The book was rushed. Risika's first two personas were revealed through brief flashbacks; her present through brief narratives. Because the whole thing was so short, I felt like I had no idea who Risika was or even why she was so darned scared of Aubrey.
Risika was a bit wishy-washy. She couldn't seem to make up her mind about how she felt--which would be understandable, except that she'd lived for three hundered years. Instead of sympathizing with her, I couldn't help but wonder why the heck she couldn't just get over it, or at least have an interesting inner conflict.
Aubrey was a decent villain, but their cataclysmic battle in the end had me thinking, "That's it?" As a reader of fantasy (and NO, I don't read Tolkein, who wants to have every single blade of grass Frodo steps on described in careful detail) I felt that the climax was severely lacking.
Aubrey was also a bit too stereotypical, a bit too afternoon special, for my taste. He wasn't original; he was, once again, flawed as a byproduct of the author's immaturity.
Now, standing up against her other books...with the exception of the superb Hawksong, this one is by far the best, which is partly why it had three stars. The others are silly little stories that have the feel of a remarkably extended writer's block--and trust me, I should know. So if you really, really want to buy it, go ahead, but be warned--you won't be getting your money's worth. This is a book to read when you have a spare hour in the car, going to your aunt's house in Ohio. If you want a good Atwater-Rhodes book, buy Hawksong. That was one of the better books I've read in awhile.
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Summary: In the Forests of the Night rox!
Review: In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhoads is a wonderful story of a young-adult vampire, Risika. Atwater-Rhoads describes the details in a vampire's life and contradicts many other common vampire myths. (Think garlic, holy water, crucifixes, etc.)
Risika, was born Rachel, but when her psychic brother makes a very strong vampire angry, (Ather) she decides to get back at him. Ather with the help of Aubrey (another strong vampire), turns Rachel into a blood-sucking creature of the night. Aubrey becomes Rachel's enemy, who is much stronger than her. Finally, Rachel fights Aubrey and proves her draconian ability.
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Summary: First and Best Vampire Book I've Read! ^_^
Review: I was never into this vampire and hocus-pocus stuff but when I picked up this book it pulled me deep into a dark world I've never been exposed to. for a thriteen year old girl, her talents exceed her age and even some older authors. I was immediately addicted to her books as soon as I finished this one. The back was rather boring, so I put it off for a long time, but 2 years later, when I finally read it I fell in love.
The basic story is a girl who was transformed into a vampire against her will, struggles to confront Aubrey, a vampire who has effected her life in many ways. She flashes back to times when she was still human, and all the way up to the current year, showing examples of how she is grown when she finally defeats her enemy and finds her brother, who she thought was dead.
I would recommend this book for people who are interested in fantasy, vampires and witches, or just looking for a good read on a rainy day or lonely night. The description the author uses makes you feel like you are there and sometimes you wish you would, and sometimes not. This is an enjoyable read, I've read it atleast 5 times! ^_^
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