In the Forests of the Night (Den of Shadows) - Gothic Fantasy Novel for Teens & Adults | Perfect for Nighttime Reading & Book Club Discussions

I first picked this book up when I was in Middle School and loved it. I recently re-read "In The Forests of The Night" just to see how it has held up over time. Now that I'm an adult, does this book still manage to entertain me? Well, yes, it does. I still found the story of the 300-year-old vampire Risika and the events leading up to her fight with an old nemesis to be fascinating.Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is one of my favorite authors, either due to nostalgia or my love of vampires in general. Unfortunately, now that I'm older I notice that this book has alot of aspects about it that most people would consider flaws that I didn't notice when I was younger.First of all, the book is really short. I mean, really short. I finished it in two hours. This is bad because you keep wanting a bit more story. In some ways this is good, though, because it's not a huge time commitment to read, so you can finish it quickly and move on to doing something else if you so desire. That's one of the reasons I love her books so much (I've read plenty of long books-Anne Rice, for example-but I always enjoy shorter books more).There was another thing I noticed; this book isn't exactly fine literature. She tends to be a little lax in her amount of environmental description and the writing itself is a bit simple. Nonetheless, I enjoy her fast-paced writing style, maybe because she doesn't bog the reader down with reams of dross. I personally feel that this book deserves five stars simply because I enjoy re-reading it (this holds true for almost all her books) and any book that I actually want to re-read has earned it's value in my mind. It's not that I didn't like some other books I've read, it's just that I often don't find myself wanting to re-read them (even if they're good), but for some reason I can just keep coming back to Amelia's books and still enjoy them.So, do I recommend this book for teens? Certainly. There's enough here to entertain a younger reader, and it's about the right length for a young adult genre book. Do I recommend it for adults? Well, that depends. If you like your books to be longer and have more "adult" writing styles, then you probably wouldn't like this book. If you love vampires and quick reads, then you'll likely find this book to be well worth your time.