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by D.K. Janotta
Release Date: September 5th 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
TEENAGE GIRL FLEES THE UNDEAD !!!
Living at home is driving seventeen-year-old Astrid Sonnschein nuts. She's desperate to leave her parents behind, and why not, with stepfather George a foul-tempered old vampire, and Mom - well, the less we say about Mom the better.
And our heroine has another compelling reason for getting out of Dodge. If she stays home much longer she's in grave danger of being transformed forever, and the last thing she wants is to become the newest Nosferatu.
So it's off to Rosenberg High and relative safety. Except it's far from safe when her relatives are holier than holy Aunt Jean, beer-swilling couch potato Uncle James and devious, cat-loving cousin Emma. And that's just evenings and weekends. Astrid Sonnschein's schooldays teem with teeth-sinkable challenges, the man of her dreams refuses to play by the rules, and the plethora of pitchfork-bearing peasants are beginning to mutter.
Peasants-schmeasants! It's when the full moon rises that Astrid's real troubles begin ..
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Review
Astrid is a half vampire who wants to live as a human so she is sent to her mother’s sister house to live. Jean, Astrid aunt, is extremely religious and nervous about having Astrid under her roof. The one rule becomes don’t tell anyone that you are a half vampire. Although the house cat can definitely sense something is off with Astrid right from the beginning.
I have been a lover of Vampire related books since Twilight so I loved the concept of a half vampire half human right from the start. Astrid was lonely in her home of all vampires and desperately needing a friend or someone to talk to since she was half human. Astrid was also nervous in her home that she was going to be attacked and turned into a full vampire so she was never relaxed.
While moving into her aunt’s house she stumbles upon a lot of challenges in being a human attending school. She has to find a way to eat lunch without actually eating food. Also, she has to deal with natural hormones and wanting a boyfriend.
The author does a great job in moving the story along and it is easy to follow. Astrid finds herself in some strange predicaments when stuff starts happening in town and she keeps getting linked to them. Only one police office, who she also loves, happens to half believe she is not part of the strangeness going on in town. The details given with the background along with characters helps to feel like you are being part of the book. I can just image what Vampireville looked like.
One thing I didn’t particularly care for was the party after exams. It made it seem like binge drinking and taking random pills was what everyone did and normal. After Astrid wakes up with a headache not much more is mentioned about the drinking and drug party. She is not really punished for this since afterwards she ran away and it is not really addressed more in the book. I understand about parties in school, but taking random pills seemed to be like the norm in this school and I felt the topic was brushed over by authority figures, like it shouldn’t be. I get it is a work of fiction, but then why leave the scene in with so many details. I would lean more towards this being adult fiction just due to this touchy issue.
I would suggest reading this as a nighttime read. It is a quick read that can easily be finished in a few nights. It is easy to follow along in the story and also there are breaks that you can stops in your reading and not feel that unease about it.
I received a copy of this book from YA Bound Book Tours for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book.
My Rating 3/5
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Author
D. K. Janotta was born in Buckinghamshire, England, and now makes his
home in Switzerland, up the hill from Lake Geneva. The first book he can
remember reading is one of Enid Blyton’s ‘Noddy’ adventures, and his
literary education progressed with leaps and bounds from there. A few of
the authors who have made an impression are C. S. Lewis, Rosemary
Sutcliff, Arthur Ransome, Nevil Shute, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett,
Neil Gaiman, Peter Høeg, Heinrich Böll, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sheila Heti
etc etc etc. And let’s not forget Bill Bryson! D. K. Janotta spends much
time travelling the world, with lots of time on trains and planes to
read (and write), and has recently upgraded from lugging around all his
paperbacks (which are still better than clay tablets any day!) to a
Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader which he finds extremely useful. He has a
penchant for writing limericks, which from time to time he trades with
his brother. His latest YA novel, ‘Fifty Percent Vampire’, starring the
lovely but confused Astrid Sonnschein, was published in September 2015.
Read the first chapter here.
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