Teen vampire Pearl’s life is thrown into disarray when she’s staked by a unicorn. Instead of killing her, the experience changes her, granting her the ability to survive in sunlight. Her Family promptly sends her to infiltrate high school, to find victims for the impending visit of their king and his retinue, a traditionally bloody affair. Unfortunately, as Pearl learns to fit in among human teenagers, she develops an inconvenient conscience, and acquires some unexpected friends. With two different aspects of her life vying for dominance, Pearl has to decide who and what she is. Durst takes the superficially silly idea and injects it with humor, drama, and rich characterization, playing the “fish out of water” theme for all it’s worth. One of the most entertaining vampire books to come along in a while.
Archive for category Vampires
After Goth teen Pandora Zwieback is sent to live with her father in New York City, she discovers that she’s not crazy, she really does see monsters. Teaming up with an immortal monster hunter and a cute guy, she gets dragged into a bizarre war between vampire clans, with a mysterious artifact as the MacGuffin and the fate of the world at stake. The overall concept is solid and entertaining, with Pan providing an appropriately snarky viewpoint. The action scenes are plentiful and cinematic, while the setting is ripe with potential. However, significant portions of the book are narrated by adult characters, making it feel like it’s not entirely Pan’s story. Pacing issues and a whiplash-inducing ending further drag down an otherwise strong beginning.
When Catlyn Youngblood and her brothers move to the tiny town of Lost Lake, Florida, she hopes that this will be the end of their constant moving for a while. Unfortunately, the siblings get a cool welcome from their new neighbors, for reasons unknown. It all changes when Catlyn has a chance meeting with the mysterious Jesse Raven one night, and they forge a clandestine friendship that soon deepens. Unfortunately, their romance is forbidden by both familes. Jesse Raven is a vampire, while the Youngbloods are descended from one of history’s greatest hunters, and there’s bad blood between the two clans. As Jesse and Catlyn defy those who would keep them apart, more secrets come to light, potentially dooming their love. Coming off as Twilight crossed with Romeo and Juliet, this YA debut for Viehl has a lot of appeal and some genuinely surprising twists.
Twenty top-notch authors explore the concept of the vampire in stories and poetry, reintroducing elements of danger, mystique, allure and passion to a topic seemingly bled thin in recent years. From those who love vampires to those who hunt them, from those attracted by immortality to those seeking it, drawing inspiration from a dozen different vampire myths, this collection is filled with gems. Some stories explore love, others life and death, others family and friendship. Freedom and imprisonment, change and stagnation, the duality of the vampiric nature is in full bloom here. This collection masterfully conveys the complexity of the concept, with nary a clunker to be found, and is a must-have for any vampire fan out there.
Twins Sunny and Rayne are anything but normal. They’re both dating vampires, while Rayne is both vampire and slayer at the same time. And now, according to their parents, they’re both fairy princesses … and that part of the family’s come to collect them. For their own safety, the girls are sent to stay at the remote Riverdale Academy, a school for slayers. As Riverdale proves full of surprises, Rayne’s forced to hide her true nature with no way to feed. With fairies, vampires, and traitors galore, disaster is inevitable. Only Mancusi could make this increasingly bizarre set of circumstances work so well, as one twist after another is introduced. The end result is a past-paced, quirky, fun continuation of the series that’s sure to keep fans amused.
Hunter Wild comes from a family of vampire hunters, and is a rising star student at the Helios-Ra Academy, which trains people like her. Despite that, she’s fast becoming friends with the vampiric Drake family, who’d rather forge a peaceful alliance with her people, than snack on humans. As feral, cannibalistic vampires threaten both sides, and a mysterious illness strikes the Helios-Ra student body, Hunter has to team up with the flirtatious Quinn Drake to combat a mutual foe. Soon, they’re falling for one another, even as they fight for their lives. Humor, action, and romance blend together perfectly in this series, while sharp characterization and an underlying sense of pure fun make this book a joy to read.
Daphne Van Helsing has been part of the family business of vampire slaying for as long as she can remember, traveling with her parents around the country, taking on the messy job of staking and beheadng misbehaving bloodsuckers. Also for as long as she can remember, she’s wanted to settle down somewhere and have a normal life, with friends, boys, and maybe even a prom someday. Unfortunately, it’s hard to have a social life when you’re armed with a fake ID and a stake, and your parents send you out to troll the bars as bat-bait. The latest gig, taking down an unusually active nest in South Bristol, promises to be more of the same. That is, until the Van Helsings run into a rival father-on team of hunters, the Harkers, with whom they have a messy history. If Daphne wasn’t so busy feuding with the son, one Tyler Harker, she might even stop to realize how cute he is. To really put the frosting on the cupcake, Daphne gets saddled with Kiki Crusher, a former child star who’s grown into a bored, buxom, bleached blonde bimbo living high on the family credit cards … and who’s decided her new calling is that of vampire hunter. With a rival she can’t trust and a sidekick she can’t stand, Daphne’s at her wits’ end. The vampires are meaner and stronger than ever before, the stakes are higher, and something nasty’s coming to South Bristol. And maybe the rival’s not so untrustworthy, and the sidekick’s not so bad after all….
In Slayed, Marrone puts a new and entertaining twist on the usual genre conventions, giving us a vampire hunter who yearns for the most basic things of a mundane life, even as she leads a life of danger and adventure. The vampires themselves are just window dressing in this story of a girl who’s ready to get away from it all and seek out the life she wants for herself. There’s plenty of supernatural action, some mystery, and some nifty bits of not-so-obvious mythology thrown in, but the real strength here comes from the honest emotions that shine through in the narrative. However, there’s another element which makes this story funny, warm-hearted, and captivating, and that’s Kiki Crusher. Kiki’s a scene-stealer, whose bouncy, bubbly, irrepressible nature can’t be dampened down by anything short of a full-on nuclear explosion. From taking a limo to a hunting job, to ordering custom unicorn horn shaped stakes (don’t ask) to blackmailing her way into becoming Daphne’s sidekick, she’s both foil and friend, cheerful nuisance and sympathetic sounding board, highly relatable and laugh-inspiring. Kiki keeps this from falling into the “guy and girl argue before falling in love” trap that loves to hide in this sort of book.
There’s a lot to love here. Daphne’s a character worth rooting for, whether she’s pining for a prom dress or stuffing garlic in a decapitated vamp’s mouth, and Marrone has done an excellent job of adding something new to a crowded genre. Definitely worth a look.
The vampire queen is dead, long live the new vampire queen. Helena Drake may be in charge following a brief, messy struggle, but the troubles aren’t over yet. The evil Lord Montmartre is still out there, and still eying the throne, and still determined to take it by kidnapping and wedding Helena’s daughter, Solange Drake. Luckily, the Drakes have Isabeau St. Croix, a resourceful young woman who survived the French Revolution before being transformed into a vampire and buried for centuries, on their side. Isabeau, now a fierce warrior known as a Hound, will do anything to protect her allies, especially if it means getting her revenge on the man who entombed her for two hundred years. With the dashing Logan Drake at her side, Isabeau must help foil the best-laid plans of Montmartre and his allies. And if Logan and Isabeau fall for one another along the way, well, no one’s about to object.
Alyxandra Harvey’s attention to detail, and ability to create complex, sympathetic characters, are what separate this book out from others of its ilk. In the small but growing field of “vampire princess books,” it’s characters like Isabeau and Logan, with their easy chemistry and genuine relationship, and supporting characters like Lucy (the token human and sassy stealer of scenes) who sell the story and make it shine. This is one series I always enjoy visiting.
Anastasija Parker always figured she was just a late-blooming True Witch, and she’d come into her powers eventually. Unfortunately, when she turns sixteen and she’s still as boring as ever, she figures that’s it. No powers, no coven, no dice. And then her long-lost father turns up, and drops a bombshell: Ana is half-vampire, half-witch, the product of an ill-advised tryst all those years ago, and it’s time for her to claim her status as vampire princess. Now she’s caught between two worlds, with both parents trying to influence her choice, attracted to two different guys, and oh yes, a renegade faction of vampires determined to kill her. The casually irreverent narrative voice makes it easy to underestimate this story of a teen caught in the ultimate parental dispute, and the main character isn’t the most sympathetic, but it’s an interesting story nonetheless. Part romance, part drama, fleshed out with interesting supporting characters (my favorite: Taylor, the geeky Somali who totally rocks the colorful hijabs), it’s a nice start to a new series.
When her asthma got too bad for Beverly Hills, Melody and her family moved to the fresher air of Salem, Oregon. Here, at Merston High, she can do her best to fit in and feel like less of an outcast in her beauty-obsessed family. Meanwhile, Frankie Stein, fresh from an intensive bout of home schooling, is ready for the full high school experience. What no one knows, however, is that Frankie’s the pride and joy of her parents … or rather, of their laboratory. They built their teenage daughter from scratch, following the family tradition.
It turns out that Merston High’s got a whole lot going on under the surface, with an entire community of monsters-in-hiding sending their disguised kids to school there. Vampires, mummies, werewolves, mad scientists, you name it. And while the younger generation may chafe at remaining hidden, their parents are adamant that things stay as they are. So will Frankie and Melody be the wild cards who upset things?
While there’s a good concept here, the plot is weighed down quite heavily by incessant pop culture references and product placements, so that we can’t go a page without someone mentioning Lady Gaga, Prada, Facebook, YouTube, or Gucci. The tongue-in-cheek naming conventions and airhead attitudes likewise work against the overall appeal. It’s a great bridge between the subgenre which spawned books like the Clique and A-List series and more substantial works, but it feels pretty awkward. There’s a lot of untapped potential, and hopefully future installments will see fewer commercials and a stronger story.
After I wrote the above, I did a little research, only to discover that this was based on a series of webisodes, themselves inspired by a line of toys from Mattel. This explains a lot, but also means we have a product tie-in that doesn’t go out of its way to alert those not in the know (yours truly, shopping the wrong aisles as always), and which actually comes off as inferior to the more stylized webisodes. Like some of the characters themselves, this book is suffering from a real identity crisis.