Lost Souls by Lisa Jackson

Have you ever had an experience, where after you hear about a subject, it just comes up again and again? Well, after I heard about Elizabeth Bathori, the infamous serial killer, I've been seeing books about her/influenced by her.

Elizabeth Bathori, if you don't know, was a noble women who murdered many girls and bathed in their blood to keep her youth and beauty. I don't think you want the details, but if you do, you can go wikipedia it.

Lost souls, while not about her, is about a crazy lady who believes she is a descendent of her, and so, puts her gory beauty regime into practice. Ok, it's a bit different from that, but that's the essential part of it. The main character Kristi, (this is apparently a series) comes back to All Saints College, and gets embroiled in the mystery of the missing co-eds. (Did I mention that she wanted to be a crime writer and her dad's a famous detective? No? It's ok, it's not that important).

The book also features heavy use of vampirism, as the method for collecting blood. In fact, wait, I shouldn't tell you. The use of vampirism fans gave a pretty interesting twist to the whole thing. (Note: I am not talking about Twilight)

I have heard of this story being slow and boring and long-winded, but, well, I can't accurately judge that. I was in a rush to finish the book, since I was going to help Aunty Florence return it. But since I finished it by the time I left school, I'll say it's not that long(:

I think, this book appears rather heavily influenced by the occult, but in the end, it's more an exploration of human nature than anything supernatural occurances.