Suck It Up

ARE YOU UP to your neck in bloodsucking vampire stories?Tired of those tales about dentally enhanced dark lords?Before I wrote this book I thought all vampires were night-stalking, fangpopping, bloodsucking fiends. Then I met Morning McCobb. He’s a vegan vampire who drinks a soy-blood substitute called Blood Lite. He believes staking should be a hate crime. And someday he hopes to march in a Vampire Pride Parade. He was also the first vampire to out himself and try to show people of mortality, like you and me, that vampires are just another minority with special needs. Trust me—this is like no other vampire book you’ll ever feed on. So, as my buddy Morning says, “Pop the lid, and suck it up.”From the Hardcover edition.From School Library JournalGrade 8 Up—Morning McCobb is graduating from the IVLeague (International Vampire League) Academy, where students are schooled to be Leaguers (vampires who live peacefully though secretly among mortals and subsist on animal blood) instead of Loners (those who follow the old ways). A forever-16-year-old misfit among his perfect classmates—the slightly older "hunks and hotties" usually chosen to become vampires—Morning is a SangFU (blood flub up); he accidentally received the "virus" while being bled dry by a Loner. He's also a vegan who drinks only a soy blood substitute. When he's offered the opportunity to be the first Leaguer to come out of the closet to the world and show mortals that vampires are just another special-needs minority, he jumps at the chance to end his outcast status and perhaps fulfill his one-time dream of becoming a firefighter. Things are going well until he becomes attracted to Portia, his PR specialist's outspoken daughter, and begins to experience true bloodlust for the first time. Meanwhile, a menacing Loner is determined to stop Morning from succeeding. Not quite as dark as most vampire novels, Meehl's story is filled with humor, quirky characters, light romance, mild suspense, and a lot of fun. A strong addition to a very popular genre.—Sharon Senser McKellar, Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistMeehl creates an original and light variation on the current trend in brooding teen vampire protagonists with Morning McCobb, a geeky, 16-year-old, New York orphan doomed to immortality. Morning’s “turning” from mortal to vampire was an accident; usually, only the young and beautiful are selected to join the vampiric community. The leader of the International Vampire League selects Morning to be the first vampire to out himself to humans, or Lifers. Thus begins a mutually manipulative relationship involving Morning, ace publicist Penny Dredful, and her 16-year-old daughter, Portia, a beautiful would-be filmmaker. Puns abound in this lengthy, complicated romp that will appeal particularly to fans of Terry Pratchett and Piers Anthony’s books. Current cultural references and teen dialogue will eventually date this title, but for the moment, teens will find it delightful. Grades 8-11. --Debbie Carton