Vampire sequel missing its teeth

Susan HUBBARD'S "The Year of Disappearances" takes us back to the vampire world of last year's "The Society of S," continuing the story of Ariella Montero, a 14-year-old girl -- half-human, half-vampire -- with a taste for a mean drink called Picardo and an intellectual hauteur that sparks such declarations as: "Researchers have found that the amygdala, the part of the brain that triggers negative feelings, is calmed when we give our feelings names. That's why we feel better after we confess to animals." (Upon my next emotional crisis, I shall consult a Lipizzaner instead of a shrink.)

The story revolves around bees that inexplicably drop dead. Or maybe it revolves around a friend's disappearance. Or maybe it revolves around underground politics. I suppose this novel is anything the reader wants it to be and will ensure a LiveJournal jihad over what it's truly about.

The plot is set up to get the home-schooled Ariella prematurely into a private college that conveniently doesn't "require applicants to take entrance exams or submit grade transcripts." Ariella lives a life of troubling contradictions. We learn that UVB rays burn vampire skin "more than a thousand times faster than they burn human skin," although casual dollops of over-the-counter sunblock prevent Ariella from accidental conflagration. Father urges her to remember her Sartre, but Mother -- or, rather, Mae -- teaches Ariella how to read maps. Mae is also very handy at drawing out charts of vampire sects to remind forgetful readers of story angles that might be pursued in a future Ariella novel. But not this one.

Wooing Ariella

There's some promise in Walker Pearson, a fellow collegian and hopeless emo hipster fond of writing vile villanelles and playing his battered acoustic -- all earnest efforts to woo Ari. He performs inept tricks at a magic show and sings "a silly song he'd made up in which he rhymed Ari with sorry, tamari, and Ferrari." But Walker is, like many of the book's characters, an archetype who only exists to get Ariella to the next meandering stage of plot.

Hubbard has a troubling habit of foreshadowing without follow-up. In a diner, Ariella watches a friend drag "a French fry through a puddle of ketchup." When hanging out with her family, Ariella dips "a shrimp into a bowl of red sauce" and eats it. And at a party close to the end, guests carry "glasses of red liquid." Unfortunately, Ari never really sinks her teeth into anyone. And what good is buildup without a deviant payoff?