Fantasy author Claudia Gray told Tor.com that her latest novel, Stargazer is the second book in the Evernight series, and expands the scope of the series.
“Evernight, the first book, was a pure vampire romance—which I love—but I knew that in Stargazer I would want to branch out a little more, bring in more suspense, action and humor,” Gray said in an interview. “So when I began work on Stargazer, my goal was to remain very true to the feel of the first book but to make the story bigger and broader—which in turn would give me a lot more to work with as the series goes forward.”
The book follows a young girl, Bianca, who is born to vampires and destined to become one herself. “[She] thinks her biggest problem is sustaining her forbidden romance with a young man who’s been raised as a vampire hunter,” Gray said. “But then Evernight Academy turns out to be haunted—and her parents turn out to have been keeping a secret from her that will turn her world upside down.”
Bianca is a shy, bookish teenager who loves old movies and astronomy. “She’s happiest when she’s curled up with a book or looking through her telescope,” Gray said. “Normal enough, except for those powerful cravings for blood that keep getting stronger all the time.”
Gray says writing vampires is a little like ordering from the Chinese food menu. “You take one item of the mythology from column A, one from column B, two from column C, and so on,” she said. “The trick is getting all of this to synthesize in a coherent way. In Stargazer, I also wanted to bring the ghosts in—not as wholly separate forces but part of my world’s theory of what it means to be undead.”
There are at least two more books in the Evernight series planned—Hourglass and Afterlife. But meanwhile, Gray has stories forthcoming in two anthologies coming out later this year: Vacations from Hell, which will be published by HarperTeen in May, and Immortal, which will arrive from BenBella in October.