Pete Johnson: The Vampire Blog

Ok, I get that this is supposed to be a book for kids, because it is written from a 13-year-old guy’s point of view. The guy is going through a transition. He is told he is soon to become a half-vampire and he will undergo some changes (growing fangs which will fall out, smelling totally awful for a certain amount of time, etc.) and while his parents are proud of his heritage and even give him a new special name to call him during the dark hours (yup, can’t talk about the vampire things during the day, duh), he doesn’t want to be like that.

I grew up on Darren Shan books so I somehow expect a lot from kid’s books. This one was kinda bad. Even though there is supposed to be action (the hero is attacked by a real vampire and is in grave danger) I didn’t find it sufficient. There is a light side to this book, too. The main character is one of those people who always come with a smart-ass reply. Well, a boy hitting puberty would sure do something like that, however, he is funny all the time and that makes him less believable. I just couldn’t come to terms with such a genial child. I’m a teacher and such kids are exactly the ones I teach, and never have I in my life encountered such a funny one. I mean, I did, but he was older. So points down for unreal characters. The rest, the interaction between the kids, is more believable though.

Honestly, I don’t know how to review this. I bought this by accident – liked the price and the name of the book and since the cheap used books online store didn’t have description of the book there, I just went with buying it. And now I’m supposed to review a kid’s book. 

So maybe it’s like the movies for kids – it is primarily for them, however, the creators always include something for the parents who accompany them when watching it. And here, I found nothing. If an adult reads it, it’s gonna be funny for only a couple of pages then it’s gonna become dull.

GENRE: kids' fun/action attempt
FANGS OUT: sometimes funny 
FANGS RETRACTING: I miss the overlap for older readers 
TOTAL SCORE: