Helpful Score: 1
I'm pretty torn about the book. I both enjoyed it at times & found it ridiculously pathetic in turn.
The positives: It's fairly well written, for a YA book that's supposed to be in that tone of voice, so the grammatical weirdness actually fits. The story has an interesting cast of characters (in a shallow, superficial sort of way), the world they exist in is consistent (so far) and rather interesting, and it does leave you wondering what will happen in book two. Well, you know how the final story will turn out, but you wonder how long it will take the authors to get there.
Some negatives: I realize I am not the audience this book is targeted to (I am very, very well past my teen years), but the "teachable lessons" are annoyingly obvious, like a slap in the face and someone yelling "Don't do this or you will be a bad girl!" Kissing a boy that you like and who likes you does not make you a slut (the author's word, not mine). The authors seem to be coming from a place of repressed sexuality or something, since they often focus on some character or act appearing not prim enough (which actually makes it rather humorous that they are writing vampire stories). Sandra Dee has nothing on the main character in this book. ("I don't smoke, or drink, or swear, and I say 'poopie'.") And she's supposed to be a teenager? Apparently not from this decade, more like from the 1950's. The writing is very uneven in places, which takes you out of the story -- it's obvious at times when either the mother or the daughter author thought some little bit would be funny and they just *had* to put it in the book. I wish they'd left most of that stuff out. The writing is also somewhat funny because it tries so very, very hard to sound teen-like and fails miserably -- much like when a 40-year old actor with wrinkles is playing a teenage roll in a movie.
Some potential positives, but maybe negatives: As of the end of book one, most of the characters are all quite stereotypical -- the hick sidekick friend who is not the pretty one, the one guy in the female group (gay and smart, naturally), the shallow-yet-entertaining "Twin" friends who were needed to not only fill out the race rainbow, but to prove the people-are-the-same-everywhere point. Maybe they will have some real development in later books.
The positives: It's fairly well written, for a YA book that's supposed to be in that tone of voice, so the grammatical weirdness actually fits. The story has an interesting cast of characters (in a shallow, superficial sort of way), the world they exist in is consistent (so far) and rather interesting, and it does leave you wondering what will happen in book two. Well, you know how the final story will turn out, but you wonder how long it will take the authors to get there.
Some negatives: I realize I am not the audience this book is targeted to (I am very, very well past my teen years), but the "teachable lessons" are annoyingly obvious, like a slap in the face and someone yelling "Don't do this or you will be a bad girl!" Kissing a boy that you like and who likes you does not make you a slut (the author's word, not mine). The authors seem to be coming from a place of repressed sexuality or something, since they often focus on some character or act appearing not prim enough (which actually makes it rather humorous that they are writing vampire stories). Sandra Dee has nothing on the main character in this book. ("I don't smoke, or drink, or swear, and I say 'poopie'.") And she's supposed to be a teenager? Apparently not from this decade, more like from the 1950's. The writing is very uneven in places, which takes you out of the story -- it's obvious at times when either the mother or the daughter author thought some little bit would be funny and they just *had* to put it in the book. I wish they'd left most of that stuff out. The writing is also somewhat funny because it tries so very, very hard to sound teen-like and fails miserably -- much like when a 40-year old actor with wrinkles is playing a teenage roll in a movie.
Some potential positives, but maybe negatives: As of the end of book one, most of the characters are all quite stereotypical -- the hick sidekick friend who is not the pretty one, the one guy in the female group (gay and smart, naturally), the shallow-yet-entertaining "Twin" friends who were needed to not only fill out the race rainbow, but to prove the people-are-the-same-everywhere point. Maybe they will have some real development in later books.
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