Let’s talk about this book, all right? We all know that I worship at the feet of Sarah Rees Brennan (ok not really, but The Demon’s Lexicon series is one of my absolute favourites ever so… there is some minor authorly idol worship going it’s fine. It’s fine.) & Justine Larbalestier has written many wonderful books that I’ve loved as well, so, it’s like the dream team of writers. I mean, writing a book with someone else is hard (then again it’s how I started writing so I think fondly of it), writing a good vampire book is even harder, especially nowadays. I actually wasn’t sure what to expect here. I was expecting a parody of sorts but this turned out to be so much better. The story is about Mel, a girl who isn’t too fond of vampires, but tolerates them because her town is basically vampire city in America (or something of the sort, in reality the vampires have their own section of the city and don’t interact too much with humans if they don’t have to). Much to Mel’s dismay, when a charming, handsome vampire shows up to school (a ridiculous notion, what vampire would want to go to school?) she’s greatly dismayed when her best friend, Cathy seems to be falling for him. This book is just so charming and witty. I read the whole thing in one city and enjoyed every moment of it. Because at face value it is a bit of a parody, but it becomes a whole lot more than that when it looks into the dynamic of a friend who thinks she’s doing something for the good of her friend, when in reality she should just stand back and let her friend make her own decisions in life. Things become more complicated for Mel when her other friend, Anna, asks for her help with her own situation (her dad running off with one of his vampire patients and her mom not handling it), and when Kit, the human boy who grew up among vampires, comes along. I loved the set up to this book. It was fresh, the setting of vampires being a normal part of life. People had to get license if they wanted to change and those were given out sparingly. There were consequences to the change if it were to fail (and there were good chances that it was going to fail). There were actual consequences to being a vampire (no laughter, no sunlight, ect.) it wasn’t played up to being the greatest thing ever. Then again, neither was being human. That’s part of what I really loved. Even though the story was being approached from the point of view of human who wasn’t the biggest fan of vampires, we saw both sides - the pros and the cons - to the humans as well as the vampires. Showing that there are terrible things to everyone and people are people (even when they’re vampires). The characters were all great, there were some that I wished were fleshed out a little more (Ty, the other vampires, ect.) But I realise that this was only a stand alone book so that’s ok in the end. I loved that Mel’s quirk was fencing and fixing things and how those things tied into the story. This was just so deliciously charming and everything I was hoping for it to be. I'd give it 4.5 stars, really, but Goodreads still doesn't allow halves =|
