Vladimir Tod is a typical young teen boy in many ways. He’s gloomy and emotional. Of course, he has reason to be. His parents are dead, he’s a real life vampire and someone is stalking him. Living on a liquid diet and being forced (like all kids) to go to school all day and finding out he might not be the only vampire (and that the others might just have 
killed his parents) might be too much.
Eighth Grade Bites is a character-driven book, so if you don’t like Vlad you probably won’t get far in the series. The first book, it’s a little slow as Vlad seems rather accustom to stewing instead of solving mysteries. But he’s a good guy, loyal and smart, and once more weirdness invades his life he’s not going to sit around and let it stand, especially when it puts the people he cares about in danger.
This volume really is just an introductory volume, leaving more threads to unravel later than are solved here. But it’s a good, clever start with plenty of space to grow.