Sasha Bishop: Shifter

PARANORMAL:  Sasha Bishop is just a typical high school teen. Well, except that she hunts and kills vampires, has a 168-year-old vampire boyfriend named Hutch, and at the ripe old age of 17 has retired as an official Slayer. Now returned to her hometown, she is just trying to get on with her life when some of her classmates show up undead and accusing her of making them that way.  All this just before the prom!

“Sasha Bishop Shifter” is an interesting mix of ideas.  Derivative of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it has an interesting plot line that will appeal to readers of young adult paranormal fiction.

The cast of characters is sometimes confusing as Jordynn attempts to include information from the first book in the series without too much exposition.  Overall, she succeeds, but it can still have the effect of taking the reader out of the story.  The love story between Hutch and Sasha works well to some extent, however, because of the age difference it sometimes appears as more of a parental or mentorship role than that of passionate lovers.  Too often the author relies on tired plot devices such as silly misunderstandings and stubborn pride to move the story along.  Sometimes Sasha’s character is more consistent with an adult than a seventeen-year-old girl.

The prose is descriptive and easy to read and the characters are all interesting in their own right.  Readers will especially enjoy Ms. Jordan’s writing.

Gwenellen Tarbet