Sometimes I feel like I’m the last person in the world to discover LJ Smith. Ten years ago I was surrounded by her works – working in a bookshop during my gap year – but I was very firmly a high fantasy and horror reader back then, and Smith’s books just didn’t hit my radar. But my tastes have expanded since then, so last year I finally picked up her Night World omnibus. And I was instantly hooked.
There are a lot of things I love about the Night World – the mythology, the romance, the dark humour – but what I love most is Smith’s heroines. Bold, brave girls with plans and dreams. Girls who fall in love without compromising themselves. Girls who face the darkness and the dangers it holds without flinching or giving up. You know, there are a lot of YA books around at the moment that might lead you to believe the best thing a teen girl can do is wait for a knight in shining armour, and that everything else in life is superfluous to that. In the Night World, that’s not the case. These girls aren’t completed by love. They’re enriched by it.
Take Hannah, from Soulmate, for example. She’s planning to be a palaeontologist, has a great relationship with her mum and best friend, and is determined to lead the life she wants. When she meets Theirry, her fated soulmate, that doesn’t change. Yes, she falls in love, but she stays her own person. Sure, her life changes – inevitable when you’re in love with a vampire – but Hannah doesn’t. She stays independent, capable, and strong. She doesn’t wait for Thierry to rescue her when she needs rescuing, but relies on her own ingenuity and intelligence. And Thierry doesn’t try to take that from her. How refreshing is that?
And then there’s my personal favourite Night World lady, Rashel from The Chosen. Rashel is a fierce and feared vampire hunter, dedicated to wiping them out wherever she finds them. So you can imagine how…complicated her life becomes when she falls in love with Quinn, a very deadly vampire. Now, sometimes in books there’s a sense that falling in love means being tamed, becoming softer. This always troubles me a little – why should love be seen as a weakening force? With Rashel and Quinn, there’s none of that. Yes, he changes her view on vampires, as she changes his view on humans. But neither of them lose their edge. Instead they become a team, complementing each other’s strengths and respecting each other’s abilities.
That’s what I really enjoy about these books – seeing how love can lift a person up and enhance them without taking anything away from them. And I think ultimately that’s one of the key themes of Smith’s series: that love triumphs – but that we can still be complete people without it. None of the heroines in the Night World are waiting for someone else to make their lives’ better. But when someone comes along who can make their life richer…well, that someone is worth fighting for.
So tell me – who’s your favourite Night World girl and why?