Don’t Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
I wasn’t sure about this one because I was sure I was past my vampire era. I read a lot of vampire books around the time Twilight was popular. There were just so many out there!
Adam and Victor are vampire children. From past novels, I would have assumed they would be kids forever. But we are told that vampires will age up or down to about twenty-five. Interesting. There are a few other things that were different from most of the other books I have read. In this book, there is some history shared about how vampires used to use ‘blood magic’ to help heal mortals. A lot of the things other books and movies have always said killed vampires or at least repelled them were not true; crosses- no issue, garlic-well, I guess that just smells overwhelmingly strong, holy water- no problem. But the sunlight will still hurt them. It’s interesting to hear different takes on vampire lore.
It seemed like each member of the family actually had a different view on what they should be doing with their lives. Adam and Victor have two moms and one other sibling. One mom works in a hospital where she can sneak blood home for them. The other mom is an astronomer at a local university. They both want to keep their family safe and hidden. The other sibling spends most of their time studying for school. The boys are normal kids who want to make friends and take risks here and there. Understandably, how many books start with kids being told to never go near the abandoned house/woods at night/some random location. What do the kids do? Go right to that spot or do whatever they were asked not to do.
The book jumps back and forth between Victor and Adam’s points of view. Victor hates mortals, but Adam seems to have a little bit of a soft spot for them. He sounds like he wants to expand his world and make some new friends. He does this one night while wandering around. He finds some kids who are trying to solve the murders that are happening in town. The problem is that the townspeople think the murders have to do with vampires! It looks like someone is leaving people out bleeding to death as bait to lure the vampires out of hiding. I was impressed with that logic; it is kind of a smart way to find vampires.
There is a good amount of action in this book. There is also a decent amount of violence and talk of blood, so be aware of that. I know it is a book for middle graders, but I felt some parts got pretty dark for that age. I still really enjoyed it!
Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 