Plot or Premise

A young girl’s body starts the change to become a vampire, so she has to go to a vampire finishing school, leaving behind her friends and family.

What I Liked

This school is not Hogwart’s for vampires. First of all, the characters are mid-teens, dealing with romantic angst, sexual desires, and confusion about relationships and their future. In the first big scene with vampires, the main character, Zoey Redbird, accidentally sees two young vamps having oral sex in the darkened corridors at the school. I suppose there’s a joke in there about magic wands, but mostly, the scene sets the age and content of the series squarely in the more mature part of the YA world. Zoey quickly demonstrates that she has special powers for a young vampire, and ends up antagonizing the cool clique while befriending the nerd herd. The newness of all of it overcomes some of the teenage angsty parts.

What I Didn’t Like

The teenage angst. The first book isn’t completely horrible; it’s the age the books are meant for, but at some point, even her friends were ready to move on to more important topics than her budding interest in boys.

The Bottom Line

Interesting premise, not bad for a start