Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand

Blue Blood Blue Bloods
by Melissa de la Cruz
Atom

Supplied for review by Hachette New Zealand

Reviewed By: Jan Buttterworth

A story about vampires that’s written for the teenage market. It’s not as angsty as Twilight, though there’s still a bit of the ‘downtrodden heroine nobody understands’. The teens live in high-society New York and lead privileged existence, except the aforementioned downtrodden heroine whose family lost the money years ago.

It follows the three main characters throughout finding out they are vampires, and the rules that govern them. The author has created a very different world of vampires than usual, and it is very interesting to read about their life cycles and the fat they can go out in the sun (and not sparkle!). According to the book false rumours about vampires have been circulated for years, a conspiracy to fool humans they exist.

The heroine, Schuyler, finds out she’s part of a long, illustrious line of vampires, the Blue Bloods, though the only one to have a human father. Throughout the book are pages from a fictional diary of one of the early settlers of a colony in America that tells of another colony of settlers who vanished, leaving a single word carved in a tree. The colony was composed of the Blue Bloods, and Schuyler and her friends are convinced that the corrupted vampires (Silver Bloods) responsible for their disappearance have returned.

This story took a real piece of history and concocted a what-if around it. It was an interesting read, and I look forward to the next in the series to find out what happens next. Teenage fans of the genre will probably enjoy this series.

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