Raven Madison

Infobox character
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series = "Vampire Kisses"
name = Raven Madison
first = "Vampire Kisses"
creator = Ellen Schreiber
species = Human
gender = Female
age = 16
occupation = Student
family = Paul Madison (father)
Sarah Madison (mother)
Billy Madison (brother)
spouse = Alexander Sterling (boyfriend)
residence = Dullsville, USA

Raven Madison is the fictional main character of the paranormal romance series, Vampire Kisses, by Ellen Schreiber.

Personal History

Early life

Raven Madison was born to Sarah and Paul Madison, two people who, according to her, seemed like they were hippies who never left the seventies. They became a little more responsible when Raven was born, but not too much. When Raven was about 4, Sarah gave birth to Billy, whom Raven called Nerd Boy.

Raven became very interested in vampires at an early age, even telling her kindergarten teacher Mrs. Peevish that was what she wanted to be when she grew up-a vampire. This made other kids think she was a freak, so they stayed away from her, so she didn't have any friends until third grade, when she met Becky Miller. Becky was also unpopular, and Raven beat up anyone who bullied her. Raven also made enemies, namely Trevor Mitchell, whom she always fought with. At home, her parents finally entered the present time and started making their house look like a normal one. Raven's gothic side was emerging and flourishing. By now, Raven had fully embraced it and become the only goth in Dullsville. She had also met Anne Rice on a trip to New Orleans.

Vampire Kisses

The first book begins with the reader learning about Raven's past, including her bold declaration in kindergarten that she wanted to be a vampire. She wasn't really like them anyway, being the only goth in town, so it didn't bother her too badly. When it gets to the present time, it's Raven's sixteenth birthday, which isn't too different from any other day. She gets two presents, one from her family and one from Becky, and definitely likes Becky's gift better.

She gets an even better gift when Becky tells her a new family, namely the Sterlings, are moving into the Benson Hill mansion, which Raven adores. When they are in gym at school, Trevor initiates their daily verbal battle, with no winner. He provokes her into deciding to crash his friend's party. Becky doesn't want to go, but they go anyway. They leave after Raven tricks a drunk Trevor into removing all of his clothes, including his underwear. On the way home, they almost hit a boy with pale white skin and wearing all black.

At Halloween, Raven chooses to dress as a tennis player, complete with expensive racket, to mix things up a bit. She goes to the mansion later that night for trick or treating, like a lot of other people do, and gives the butler, nicknamed "Creepy Man", some candy and a spider ring. When Trevor shows up, she gets her first good look at the boy she calls "Gothic Guy": the boy they almost hit the night of the party.

As the book continues, she gets to know Gothic Guy - Alexander Sterling - and Creepy Man, or Jameson. But first, she has to get a job to buy a new racket, since she lost the one she had, accuse Trevor of being in love with her, and beg her brother to let her go on a date. When Alexander accidentally bites her on their second date, Becky helps her see if she became a vampire, since that's what the Sterlings are rumored to be. All of the tests fail.

Near the end of the book, at the Snow Ball, Trevor blackmails Becky into telling him everything and into going to the Snow Ball with him. He then confronts Alexander and Raven with this information. Alexander gets mad at Raven, and they do not speak for a while. Raven admits she loves Alexander while visiting his grandmother's grave. At a party at the mansion, Raven finds out that Alexander is a vampire. She does not take it well, and when she looks for him the next day, Alexander is gone, leaving only a note saying "Because I love you".

Kissing Coffins

Alexander has been gone for two days, and Raven has not slept at all since his departure. Becky gives her the idea to go and look for him, and so Raven decides to look in a nearby town she calls Hipsterville, since he does not have his passport and that is where Jameson apparently sent Ruby flowers from. A lot of the townspeople were unusual, so he would blend right in. Thankfully, Hipsterville was also the resident town of her Aunt Libby. After acquiring a fake I.D. with Nerd Boy, now Billy Boy, and his friend Henry's help, she leaves to visit her aunt and investigate.

After Aunt Libby picks her up and takes her shopping, Raven unpacks her things at her aunt's apartment. Her aunt has a show that night, and right before the play starts, Raven sneaks out to the "Coffin Club", where Jameson called from. While she is there, she meets Jagger Maxwell, a teen with one ice blue eye and one metallic green eye. He partially seduces her and tries to coax information from her, but she keeps quiet about Alexander. She sees fangs in his mouth, but since a lot of goths have fangs in the club, she does not pay too much attention.

When Raven went back to the theater, she saw someone watching her and found the pewter skeleton earring Jagger was wearing. She sees a bat watching her as she returns to her aunt's apartment. Raven went to look at a mansion, where she found evidence of Alexander's presence: a picture he painted of her, dressed for the Snow Ball. Afterwards, she again encounters Jagger, and follows him to where he lives - a room below the Coffin Club, with a coffin instead of a bed. They talk of Alexander, whom Jagger knows and is looking for. Again, he tries to seduce her. She escapes unharmed.

Raven decides to look again at the mansion for Alexander, she finds Jagger instead, passed out. When she wakes up, she is in the graveyard and Jagger tries to take her in a covenant ceremony. It is confirmed that he is a vampire too. Alexander shows up just in time to save Raven, and she runs back to the mansion while the two vampires fight. Alexander soon returns to her, and explains about covenant ceremonies, where if a vampire turns you on sacred ground, you are theirs for eternity. He also talks about his past, and why Jagger wants revenge.

A few days later, Raven finds out that Jagger did not leave like Alexander thought - he shows up at her house and tries to get her to go with him. However, Billy Boy and Nightmare, Raven's new cat, stop Jagger from doing anything. When Trevor meets Jagger, he tells the vampire that the drive-in theater is a burial ground, or sacred ground. He is not going to use Raven as revenge anymore: now he just wants her for himself. After nearly killing Alexander with garlic by accident, Raven tells him about Jagger and his plans. They come up with a plan of their own to keep her safe.

At the drive in, Jagger shows, just like they knew he would, and tries to bite Raven. She manages to get away from him and to Alexander, where, with some blood in a bag and very realistic fangs, they trick Jagger into thinking she is now a vampire. He falls for it and disappears. At the Spring Carnival, they find that not only is Jagger still there, so is his vampiric twin sister, Luna Maxwell. She reveals that she plans to take Trevor, and sees Raven's reflection before disappearing.

Controversy

As Vampire Kisses made a steady climb in popularity, it wasn’t that much later until members of the Gothic subculture began to notice the series. Soon after reading it, numerous members from around the globe began to feel unjustly represented by Raven Madison, a sixteen year old girl who stands for much what the Gothic subculture tries to eliminate. Not only did she use a boy to her advantage based on the suspicion he was part of the undead, but she constantly makes a mockery of a subculture based on intellectual reformation, with outcries of “Oh my Goth,” or “Good Goth.”

Most Goths, in fact, do not participate in activities such as faking an ID to get into a bar, trespassing grounds in the middle of the night repeatedly, stalking, and breaking into people’s houses. Raven has done all of these things on more then one occasion. "This is not the recipe of the perfect 'Goth girl'; this is the recipe for a future felon," some who have read the series say.

Some feel that Schreiber has made a mockery of the Goth scene, what with supporting certain musical groups that have no ties to the Gothic subculture what-so-ever and labeling them "Goth," such as Marilyn Manson, further misleading the youth who choose to remain "mundane" or "normal" by giving them unacceptable examples of what the scene is like.