Penguin Group, 2006
ISBN: 0451217527
Available: New
In High School Bites, Liza Conrad breathes a little fresh air into the growing subgenre of “chick-lit with fangs.” The bones of the story aren’t original- teenage girl with friends slightly outside the norm discovers she’s a vampire slayer, and a master vampire, with unimaginative minions, is out to get her- the plot and character motivations are all relatively predictable. But Conrad does something unusual- she “outs” her heroine, Lucy. In addition to her friends and teachers, her father and uncle not only know her “secret” but cheer her on. A modern slayer, Lucy has moved on past wooden stakes- now she’s armed with concentrated garlic and vampire-repelling perfume. On top of it all, everyone seems to be related to a character from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula- even the cat! Two things separate this book from the crowd. First, Conrad’s narrator is an average teenager who simply accepts the bizarre as perfectly normal, so she’s a much more accessible character than the outsider characters typical in this subgenre. Second, the book is laugh-out-loud funny. Readers willing to suspend disbelief will find an enjoyable tale in this quick and witty book. Note: Liza Conrad is a pseudonym for Erica Orloff, who also writes paranormal romance. High School Bites is recommended for high school library media centers and general YA collections in public libraries. Contains: kissing and necking, dog fighting, some violence.
Review by Francesca the Librarian