JAY MACDONALD • SPECIAL TO NEWS-PRESS.COM • MAY 25, 2008

Horror novels have a long and proud history as subversive literature. The very concept of the "other" begs to comment on how our society works, whether it's in the guise of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Add to that monstrously engaging list Ariella "Ari" Montero, the half-human, half-vampire teenage protagonist of "The Year of Disappearances" (Simon & Schuster, $22.95), the sequel to last year's terrific debut "The Society of S" by University of Central Florida writing professor Susan Hubbard.

Anyone still lingering under the misconception that academics can't compete in the majors would be well advised to pick up either of Hubbard's novels, which combine the creepiness of Stephen King with the acute social commentary of the Beats, Philip K. Dick and Don Delillo. It's a heady mix; then again, so is our society today.

"The great fun of all of this for me is being able to make several pointedly ironic observations about American contemporary culture in the guise of a novel," says Hubbard. "My fantasy is that subconsciously, my subversive ideas are going to percolate through the people who haven't been completely turned into zombies yet by cell phones and botox injections and drugs of one kind and another, and they might wake up and actually have a critical thought."

To bring you up to date: in "Society of S," Ari left her vampire father's home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. to reunite with her formerly-human mother in Homosassa Springs, Fla. (Yes, that's a lot of S's; they're one of the ways vampires designate vamp-friendly towns). Ari's father subsequently staged his own death and created a new identity in Ireland, something immortals unfortunately have to do every so often in order to fit into society.

In the sequel, the disappearance of a teenage friend prompts Ari to relocate again, this time to Georgia's Hillhouse College, her mother's alma mater. There, she develops a crush on a visiting vampire politician, begging the question, could a vampire become president? She also learns the truth about a popular new drug called V (for vampire), which turns teens into zombies and may be the handiwork of a segment of the vampire population that views humans as little more than walking Big Macs.

Just as Ari's coming-of-age tale continues to be an eye-opener, Hubbard's new fan base has been a revelation for the author.

"Members of the vampire community have e-mailed me. My favorite was from a guy who actually lives in Homosassa Springs who said, 'Hey, you got most of the details right,'" she says, chuckling. "I was glad to know that my credentials as an authentic vampire writer were being upheld by the actual practitioners."

Truth to tell, Hubbard says there is something spooky in that S-happy town.

"I've been there several times for research. It's so 'other' in terms of Florida culture that you can believe any manner of odd things could exist there. The air has a stillness to it at times that I associate with very few places, but it has a kind of spooky charm to it."

Hubbard couldn't resist weaving in an environmental subtext. "Anybody who writes a novel these days that doesn't have some element of environmental concern in it to me is blind," she says.

TEEN VAMPIRE PUTS THE BITE ON MYSTERY

By Tammar Stein, Special to the Times 

Published Wednesday, May 14, 2008

If I had to choose a superhero power, it would be a tie between invisibility and reading other's thoughts. Ariella Montero, the 14-year-old hero of The Year of Disappearances, can do both. But she's no superhero. She's a vampire.

Author Susan Hubbard has taken that hackneyed world of vampires and given it an original, intriguing twist. Introduced in The Society of S, Ariella now lives with her mother in Homosassa Springs. Ariella does just fine in the hot Florida sun as long as she remembers to apply a heavy coat of sunscreen. She doesn't drink human blood, not that the thought isn't appealing. As long as she takes regular doses of Sangfroid, basically freeze-dried flakes of blood, and drinks a special blood-derived tonic, she can eliminate the need for (fresh) human blood.

Ariella, who discovered her vampire heritage only the year before, is dealing with an absent father, a new mother, her growing sexuality (a problem in the surprisingly celibate and prudish vampire culture) and being a murder suspect. Despite this she is about the sweetest, most erudite and considerate vampire in literature.

With a delicate touch, the talented Hubbard manages to merge environmental concerns with a murder mystery, a coming of age tale with a literary vampire twist. In Ariella's world not all vampires are as nonviolent as she and her parents are. Different sects believe that humans are destroying the Earth and must be made extinct before every other living thing is. Underlying the menacing plot of missing young women and sinister demons is the urgent need for environmental activism. Hubbard, a professor of English at the University of Central Florida, weaves the desperate state of the environment into the plot, ending with a barely disguised plea for action.

With plenty of mysteries left unsolved and questions unanswered, there's rich material to carry on the next chapter of Ariella's story.

Tammar Stein's second novel, "High Dive," is coming in June.

© 2008 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times

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