Throat

From BooklistSeventeen-year-old epileptic Emma’s truly bad day ends with crashing her mother’s car and swimming to consciousness in the presence of a vampire intent on making her his next victim. She stops him before he kills her, but he threatens harm to her family if she doesn’t bend to his will. Rather than endanger them, Emma runs away and eventually decides to eliminate the threat—if she can. These are brutal, old-style German vampires, a far cry from the elegant Cullens of Forks. Emma’s first-person narrative shows someone who is all prickly warrior, and tender moments are too few and one-note to evoke much sympathy for her situation. There is imaginative and original vampire lore, a detailed setting, and even romance in the form of a lovely nerd to assist the female hero, but unless readers click with the characters, the slow pacing may tempt them to skip ahead now and then. Those who prefer their vampires closer to the black-and-white version (but without the camp) should check into Nelson’s world—and watch their throats. Grades 7-10. --Cindy Welch ReviewThe Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2011:"Nelson offers...variation to the vampire YA heap with his pseudo-transformation epileptic chick, but even more interesting and memorable is the thoughtful exploration of the way logic and faith (in varying forms) can sometimes yield much more remarkable results than either alone." Publisher's Weekly, February 14, 2011:"Nelson (Days of Little Texas) proves that the vampire genre is not entirely sucked dry with this fast-paced adventure featuring an enjoyably flawed heroine...With a pseudoscientific take on vampires, a smattering of Germanic lore, and a strikingly unconventional showdown, this is a robust alternative to the forbidden love tropes of wispier vampire novels."BookPleasures.com, December 25, 2010:"This is not your regular vamp fare, guys and gals. From the romance that is anything but trite, to the amazing science fiction aspects, you will find yourself FINALLY happy that a good writer wrote a very good vampire book. Enjoy!"TeenReads.com, February 19, 2011:"I picked up a bit of German vocabulary as Emma's grandfather, Papi, and all the vampires speak the language; I was given an insider's view of what it's like to live with epilepsy; and I learned some things about vampires that I never knew before...THROAT is quite well-written, and I very much enjoyed reading it. I think you will, too."Bookloons.com, March 1, 2011:"This unusual supernatural thriller shines a different light on vampires."From the Hardcover edition.