Look for Me by Moonlight

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"A stylish psychological thriller... all the more gripping for its sturdy psychological underpinnings," said PW about this novel of a teenage girl in a remote, haunted inn who falls for a mysterious visitor. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)o

From The Critics

"Hahn deftly creates the proper atmosphere and setting for this spine chiller."

Children's Literature - Jan Lieberman

This is a sinister gothic story set in the bleak chill of a Maine winter. Cynda, 16, is visiting her dad and his new family at their remote coastal Inn. The landscape is desolate and foreboding which adds to Cynda's feeling of loneliness and isolation. When a handsome, mysterious stranger appears, Cynda's life takes on exciting possibilities. Vincent promises love but there are signs that he is not what he seems to be. She is spellbound and unable to resist his power. Only when her 5-year-old step-brother is threatened is she able to act, but is it too late? A riveting vampire story. 1997 (orig.

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-A vampire story with all the formulaic trappings of Gothic romance. Rebellious and hostile, Cynda refuses to accompany her mother and stepfather to Italy, so she goes to spend a six-month trial visit with her father, young stepmother, and half-brother at an old inn on the winter-desolate Maine coast. She learns the dark history of her new home, which is reported to be haunted by the ghost of a former innkeeper's daughter, who was murdered, drained of blood, and tossed into the ocean in the 1930s. Will, the housekeeper's grandson, fleetingly wins Cynda's attention until a mysterious, tall, dark, and drop-dead handsome stranger appears in a silver Porsche bathed in moonlight during a blizzard. Vincent, sexy and poetic, jokes with her that he is 30 years old, give or take a few centuries. He quickly insinuates himself into the inn's routine, charming everyone, especially Cynda, who feels like an outsider in her father's new family. Only the child Todd fears and distrusts Vincent. When the vampire turns his attention to the boy and sucks his blood, Cynda fights back to save him. The novel's aura of romance and suspense, coupled with images of Bess, the landlord's daughter from ``The Highwayman,'' elevate the prose somewhat and help sustain reader attention and interest. But like Cynda's crush on Vincent, the narrative is predictable. The happy ending is disappointing; could a weakened vampire's thrall so easily overcome her centuries-old despoiler? In most vampire stories, evil demons usually fight to the death, taking a few innocents with them. Though a step up from ``Fear Street'' and other horror novels, this book lacks the gripping, palpable action and poignant emotion of Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (Delacorte, 1990) or Margaret Mahy's The Changeover (McElderry, 1984). In Look For Me by Moonlight, it is the easy seduction of a teen who is a victim of her own insecurities that rings most true.-Alice Casey Smith, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Manalapan, NJ