Vampirism and You!

Title: Vampirism and You! A Beginner’s Guide to the Change
Author: Missouri Dalton
Cover Artist: BSClay
Publisher: PRIZM Books
Buy Link: Buy Link Genre: young adult, paranormal
Length: novella 199 pages
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Larissa

Review Summary: A dark, edgy and humorous story that started out good but became a shallow story with dark undertones.

Blurb
Louis’ whole life was planned right to a bite on the neck at his seventeenth birthday. The British native has a whole lot of changes coming his way. There’s the cravings, the urges, the relocation to rural USA…it’s a lot for a teenager to handle. Throw in the possibility that he might not be as straight as he always thought and it’s a tangled mess as Louis tries to navigate his new life as a vampire.

Things aren’t going to be easy though, and his foster-vampire Duncan is determined to make Louis a fine upstanding example of vampirism—or else. Louis has his handbook though to explain well, some things. But not everything.

When a new vampire shows up in town, Louis thinks he’s finally found someone to confide in, except Eli has his own agenda and Louis is about to find out that being a vampire means more than drinking blood and causing mayhem—there are also dirty politics, dark secrets, and a whole lot of reading assignments.

Review
“Rule #1: When in doubt, the answer is usually: run away.
Rule #2: Refer to rule #1
Rule #3: Not eating is stupid. Don’t be stupid”

This is how Vampirism and You starts and it’s a good start. It made me raise my eyebrows and got me all curious and laughing too. Louis is all wit and sarcasm, partly a shield to hide his deeper feelings. The manner in which the story started made me think this was going to lean towards a dark comedy story. However, the more the story progresses, more darker and heavy themes are introduced that didn’t combine with the superficial telling of the story. None of the characters have real depth and none of the plotlines are explored deeper.

Louis was made a vampire as a trade to keep the rest of his family and in particular his sister free from servitude to vampires. When the story starts he is in his coffin enroute to his mentor and new life. It’s quite a change in the life of Louis, who will forever be 17. He is reading the vampire manual that is a guide in the lives of many newly made vampires. This guide is a central thread throughout the story and is both funny – see the rules above – and serious.

The start is funny with dark undertones and that continues throughout the story. The battle of wills with his mentor Duncan, an older vampire and the scrapes Louis gets into are both funny and worrisome. It’s clear that, despite the situation, Louis won’t just lie down and surrender.

However, the dark undertones get heavier and heavier as his story continues. With the introduction of the antagonist Eli it gets even darker as parts of Louis past are unraveled.

It’s hard to explain this without giving the story away, but my problem lies in the superficial manner in which the story is told. The themes, such as past abuse, Louis and his family’s servitude and Louis coming to term with his sexuality are never fully explored, just stated. As a result the story turns out to be much heavier than is implied from the tone of the story. Part of the problem also the length of the story. My guess is, with the themes in the story and the plot itself, it would have benefitted from a longer length.

Nevertheless Vampirism and You is not all bad. I enjoyed reading it for the most part. If this book wasn’t meant for a review, I probably would have rated it higher. The writing and the Louis’ wit and sarcasm are a redeeming factor. It was well done and the sarcasm is definitely funny.

Vampirism and You is a Young Adult book, but my guess is that many an adult won’t really see the difference. My guess is that readers with a dark sense of humor will like this story more than readers who like light and fluffy humor.