Postcard For Reader

Eighth Grade Bites

Eighth Grade Bites
Author: Heather Brewer
Series: The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod (#1)
Publisher: Dutton's Children
How Received: bought

Junior high really stinks for thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a secret: His mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers and no one to teach him, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs. When a strange substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he realizes he has a much bigger problem: He’s being hunted by a vampire killer who is closing in . . . fast!
Buy | Borrow | Brush Off
Everywhere you look today, there's vampires. So if I'm gonna read a vampire book, I'm going to go back to one that was published around when the mania started - simply because there's a better chance of it NOT being a love triangle.

Oz, there's nothing that irritates me more than a love triangle. But I digress.

Eighth Grade Bites was a really fast read for me; I sat and read it in one sitting before I went to bed and kind of adored it. Sure, it's not some deep look into the human consciousness or good versus evil or whathaveyou. (Well, maybe it does that later in the series, who knows?) For me, it was just a fun read.

I love Vlad as a character; he managed to make me giggle. He's easy to relate to - he deals with bullies and crushes and friends and grades and sure, he's a vampire, but that's really not that big a deal in the scheme of things. I loved how Heather stuck in all the stereotypical junior high children - because in junior high, everybody is stereotypical. (Look back. It's in high school that we start to differ, juuuust a little bit.)

I'm excited to read the next one in the series and learn a little bit about the vampire society she hinted at; it wasn't explained much in this one - this one was meant to grab you and let you have fun and kind of want to read the rest.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: 8/10. It's not anything special, but it's a fun and easy read, and I'm interested in seeing where the vampire society goes.