Loved this fictionalized autobiography. The place/event/time isn't always consistent with the reality but I enjoyed how she told her own story in a fictional setting. Made me wish I could have been there instead of running home to see the show. The story captures so much of what has been told in the various Dark Shadows Scrapbooks that you will love this if you are an old fan or a new one just taking your first steps into Collinwood/Stanhope!! ( )

Loved this fictionalized autobiography. The place/event/time isn't always consistent with the reality but I enjoyed how she told her own story in a fictional setting. Made me wish I could have been there instead of running home to see the show. The story captures so much of what has been told in the various Dark Shadows Scrapbooks that you will love this if you are an old fan or a new one just taking your first steps into Collinwood/Stanhope!! ( )

I've been a fan of the show Dark Shadows for over 20 years now, and I've read several of Ms. Scott's non-fiction books. Needless to say, I was very excited when I heard about this book. It immediately jumped to the top of my to-read list, and now that I've finished reading it, I must say - it did not disappoint!

The book is unquestionably a take off on the filming of the original Dark Shadows series, except with a real vampire right in the middle of the mix. The plot moved along swiftly, and seemed to be a string of small plots laced together by the central plot (that of Meg and her nemesis). Ms. Scott did a lovely job of balancing the severity of some of the situations with just the right amount of humor to keep the book from feeling too dark or heavy. I do wish there had been a bit more of a wrap up after the climax of the book, but at the same time, the fact that it occurs so late in the book kept me reading late into the evening to find out what happened!

Admittedly, folks who are fans of the original "Dark Shadows" series will probably have an added level of enjoyment of the novel; many of the characters seem quite similar to original cast and crew members, and even many of the minor events in the book seem to be nods to actual occurences both on and off screen (thanks to many years of DS conventions for giving me that background knowledge!) However, I do suspect that even readers who are not familiar with the original TV show could appreciate the novel. I'm working on convincing some of my friends to read the novel to find this out!

Thank you Ms. Scott for a lovely novel - I'm looking forward to a sequel! ( )

I love vampire and urban fantasy books. I was thrilled to get this one. However, i was sorely disappointed. I tried reading it, but couldn't get into it. I tried again.....and again. I could not get further than the first chapter. I was not interested in the characters or the story. I even tried flipping to other parts of the book, but i found the. To be just as boring. ( )

I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for my honest review.

Read this review on my blog, too: http://abnormallyparanormal.blogspot.com/2012/03/book-review-dark-passages-by-ka...

Plot: First of all, the author of this novel was on a TV soap opera that ran from 1966 – 1971 called Dark Shadows, so she writes this novel largely from experience. It's about a girl named Meg who leaves 1960's Minnesota to work in New York City as a Playboy Bunny waitress, until she can get an acting job. She gets hired for a small role on a daytime soap opera, which eventually writes in a male vampire character into the script. Meg happens to be a real vampire and nobody knows about their existence, so she keeps her true identity a secret from everyone she knows. This is rather anti-climactic. It would have been better if even Ian, the soap opera vampire, had discovered her secret, but he doesn't. Halfway through, a witch named Camilla is thrown into the story, out of nowhere, to be the main villain character out to make Meg miserable, but I didn't understand Camilla's motivation. She has no reason for her vendetta against Meg and her family.

Characters: Meg isn't really a problematic character until she tries to hide her pregnancy from everyone. She constantly lies to everyone that she is fine when she should be saying something. But, I don't understand the point of her pregnancy at all. It means nothing to the plot. Ian, a sort of love-interest, is a nice character, but doesn't really do much to further the plot, either. I was thinking he'd get mixed up in Meg and Camilla's big boss fight at the end, maybe be held hostage by Camilla, but that never happens. Tons of characters are completely pointless. Haddie is a ghost that helps Meg with Camilla, but it's never explained how a dead guy's ghost can do anything supernatural. He just can.

Technical Writing: First, I'll have to narrow it down to mentioning sentence structure because that is good. But, the overall writing is not good because most of it is very “telly,” meaning it's like listening to someone blather on about their experience rather than feeling immersed in it. Not a single scene break can be found, other than normal chapter breaks, so it follows Meg every place she goes, no matter how pointless. There are some “showing” scenes, but not nearly enough. I never felt plunged into the story and it made this an arduously slow read for me.

Storytelling: My problem is with the world-building. This is fantasy, yet there is hardly any effort to develop it. Vampires are never explained and Meg never questions her mother about anything, which I find strange. Witches are never mentioned outright, and then suddenly one shows up halfway through to be the villain. I never bought it because it isn't set up properly. Also, Meg being a vampire seems moot. Because no one she works with ever finds out about her being a vampire, and it never helps her do anything significant regarding the Club or the TV show, I wonder why the author bothered to make Meg a vampire at all.

Overall Quality: Below average for me. I like the premise with the 1960's setting, the Bunny Club, even the soap opera, but 30% of the story could have been cut due to being unimportant. I wanted it to be an escape into a rare time in history that is fascinating, but it felt more like reading autobiographical nonfiction (except for the fantasy elements). I realize this author has an incredibly rare history that begged to be fictionalized, but I have to judge this book based on the standards all fiction is subjected to, and it doesn't hold up well. ( )