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Fangs #2
Overnight Bite
Disguised as a bat, Damian, the vampire boy, sneaks around Ginger's attic, trying to hear what she and her giggly slumber party friends are talking about.
119 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 1996
14 people want to read
About the author
Carol Ellis
93 books92 followersCarol Ellis is an American author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her first novel, My Secret Admirer, was published in 1989 by Scholastic as part of their popular Point Thriller line.
She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.
She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.
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September 24, 2024
THE WORKS OF CAROL ELLIS, 1945-2022
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."
Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.
Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.
As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.
There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.
I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.
OVERNIGHT BITE
I must admit, I was kind of pessimistic going into this one. “Overnight Bite” was the second (and, as it turned out, last) in my mother's Fangs line of short vampire novels, published by Random House and aimed at younger readers. For more information on the line in general, see my review of the first Fangs book, “Vampire Cats.” While I wasn't sure how good that book was going to be, I knew that, if nothing else, my mom would have been stimulated by her love of cats. As it turned out, “Vampire Cats” was wonderful fun, but I was left pondering how much energy my mom would have had left for this second book. Supernatural themes were not her favorites, and she usually preferred writing for teenagers. “Vampire Cats” turned out good because I think she was able to really identify with that book's protagonist (a lonely, cat-loving girl) but it seemed more than possible that “Overnight Bite” would be a kind of also ran, while still professionally done, as my mom's work always was.
Totally wrong! Honestly, I think I marginally prefer “Overnight Bite.” As I got into it, I was astonished to find that it seemed modeled after those old dark house style horror/mystery comedies that were popular in movies from the 1920s through the 1940s. Echoes of this subgenre continued on in certain TV shows throughout the 50s and 60s at least, and I think memories of that is what my mom might have been primarily drawing from. I absolutely adore this whole vibe and was really tickled to find it here, especially since I was absolutely not expecting it.
With this influence, “Overnight Bite” is considerably lighter than “Vampire Cats,” which at times verged on the disturbing. The vampire lore is also somewhat more traditional here. As a matter of fact, I wondered if the book might have been ever so slightly too sophisticated and/or old fashioned for its target audience. While everything is carefully tailored for tween readers, the winking humor and vaguely black & white movie ambiance might not have connected. However, it certainly makes for fun reading now. The vampire's point of view narrative also worked tremendously well, giving us a genuinely interesting portrait of a humorously put-upon (but still quite sinister) vampire kid.
All in all, a surprise treat! And with another stunning cover by artist Mark Garro, “Overnight Bite” is a true lost gem. Just don't read it with any garlic around!
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."
Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.
Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.
As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.
There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.
I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.
OVERNIGHT BITE
I must admit, I was kind of pessimistic going into this one. “Overnight Bite” was the second (and, as it turned out, last) in my mother's Fangs line of short vampire novels, published by Random House and aimed at younger readers. For more information on the line in general, see my review of the first Fangs book, “Vampire Cats.” While I wasn't sure how good that book was going to be, I knew that, if nothing else, my mom would have been stimulated by her love of cats. As it turned out, “Vampire Cats” was wonderful fun, but I was left pondering how much energy my mom would have had left for this second book. Supernatural themes were not her favorites, and she usually preferred writing for teenagers. “Vampire Cats” turned out good because I think she was able to really identify with that book's protagonist (a lonely, cat-loving girl) but it seemed more than possible that “Overnight Bite” would be a kind of also ran, while still professionally done, as my mom's work always was.
Totally wrong! Honestly, I think I marginally prefer “Overnight Bite.” As I got into it, I was astonished to find that it seemed modeled after those old dark house style horror/mystery comedies that were popular in movies from the 1920s through the 1940s. Echoes of this subgenre continued on in certain TV shows throughout the 50s and 60s at least, and I think memories of that is what my mom might have been primarily drawing from. I absolutely adore this whole vibe and was really tickled to find it here, especially since I was absolutely not expecting it.
With this influence, “Overnight Bite” is considerably lighter than “Vampire Cats,” which at times verged on the disturbing. The vampire lore is also somewhat more traditional here. As a matter of fact, I wondered if the book might have been ever so slightly too sophisticated and/or old fashioned for its target audience. While everything is carefully tailored for tween readers, the winking humor and vaguely black & white movie ambiance might not have connected. However, it certainly makes for fun reading now. The vampire's point of view narrative also worked tremendously well, giving us a genuinely interesting portrait of a humorously put-upon (but still quite sinister) vampire kid.
All in all, a surprise treat! And with another stunning cover by artist Mark Garro, “Overnight Bite” is a true lost gem. Just don't read it with any garlic around!
Displaying 1 of 1 review