Night Wanderer

A different kind of vampire tale. I enjoyed this new twist much better than other vampire novels I have read. It was low-key and more cerebral. I also liked the fact that the vampire was a Native from a Reserve in Canada. Owl, otherwise known as Pierre L'Errant, comes back home to the Canadian Reserve he left so long ago. His dreams took away from his family and all he loved across an ocean to a foreign land. No matter how much learned of new people and new lands, he always looked back to the home he left and the humanity he had taken away from him.

He finally manages to get back with encountering the deadly sun to reacquaint himself with all that he had held dearly decades ago. In fact he has come home to die. On his this final journed, he finds himself caught up in the relatively mundane life of teenaged girl who is having problems communicating with her father. Pierre and Tiffany keep getting thrown together as he wanders the reserve at night. Although he has no real reason to care about Tiffany's probblems, he still finds a way to get her to reevaluate her options as she tries to cope with the sometimes harshness and futility of Reserve life.

Most vampires seem to really like their "life". The power, "romance", "immortality" and the bloodlust is all it takes to make them happy and satisfied (?). Pierre (Owl) knows what he has lost and has never forgotten what he could have had. His dreams took that all away from him. In coming home, he realizes what he sacrificed and only wants his freedom from a life that can never be happy.

He is tempted time and time again. But his heritage and the traditions he learned so long ago have never left him. As he prepares for his final ceremony, he tries to leave behind some kind of legacy which still calls out to the humanity left in him. As he looks upon the beautiful sunrise, the reader must celebrate and rejoice with Owl as he once again is free.