Review of Fat Vampire by Adam Rex

Fat Vampire by Adam Rex. Balzer+Bray, 2010

While on vacation in the Poconos, fifteen-year-old Doug Lee is bitten by a vampire. Life is already hard enough, but now he will live forever in his short, fat body. He has resorted to feeding on cows and hiding under a poncho to avoid the sun. His best friend, Jay, is trying, without much luck, to help Doug adjust to vampire life. Sejal, an Indian foreign exchange student with an Internet addiction, moves to town, and Doug is smitten with her. However, Sejal does not have the same feelings for him! Doug is invited to join a secret vampire society and begins to be tutored by a shady, elderly vampire. He learns that Victor, a handsome football player, is the vampire who attacked him in the Poconos! All the while, Doug is being hunted by the host of a vampire hunter reality show and is trying to figure out how to reverse his vampire curse.

Fat Vampire is a hilarious, satire of the current common, popular vampire romance. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the antics of Doug, the main character and hero. Especially funny was the scene where Doug steals blood from his school’s blood drive, and the theater group attendance at a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sejal’s reactions to American life and customs were, at times, hysterical. Author Adam Rex touches on many sensitive subjects, including sexual orientation, racial stereotyping, and Internet addiction. However, I felt that the sexual references were overused and many of them could have been eliminated. Additionally, there is a cliffhanger ending, which was disappointing. Instead of ending the book, there are a number of plausible endings presented, which leaves the reader to choose the one he prefers.

Overall, I found the book extremely funny and engaging. I recommend it for upper high school and public libraries.

Review of Slayed by Amanda Marrone

Slayed by Amanda Marrone; Simon Pulse, 2010.

Daphne Van Helsing has been hunting and killing vampires since she was twelve years old. Her family is descended from Abraham Van Helsing, the legendary vampire hunter. Daphne would love to be able to live in one place for a long time and make friends. Instead, she has been sketching imaginary friends in a notebook while her parents drag her all over the country for “vampire gigs”. She is surprised one night to find Kiki Crusher, formerly aka Maybelle Crusher, daughter of the lead singer of “The Disco Unicorns”, in a bar in Bristol, Maine. Kiki inadvertently saves Daphne’s life and becomes a vampire-hunter apprentice. Kiki begins on-the-job training, and she and Daphne discover that the vampires in Bristol have morphed into super-human vampires, which are much more difficult to kill. The Van Helsing’s rivals, Nathan Harker and his handsome son, Tyler, descendents of Jonathan Harker, another famous vampire hunter, arrive in town, intent on taking jobs away from the Van Helsings. Will the vampire hunters be able to get along and rid the town of the killer vampires, or will they perish in the process? However, there are more sinister forces at work, and evil is filtering into Bristol!


Amanda Marrone has done a terrific job of getting into a teenage girl’s head to describe how Daphne feels about vampire hunting. The descriptions of staking and decapitating vampires are quite bloody and gory. Daphne is torn between carrying out her duties and wanting to give it all up to be a “homebody”. There were lots of vampire facts in the book, which gives readers a crash course in their background. I had no idea that a vampire actually has to drink all of a human’s blood in order for them to actually become a vampire! A little nibble just won’t do it! This book was really funny, even though there was so much violence in it! Kiki is a real hoot, and she stepped right into the vampire hunter role like she was born to it! She pulls no punches and even becomes the bff that Amanda has never had!

Slayed is a funny twist on scary subject! I recommend this book to high school and public libraries!