Saturday, December 5, 2009

What do you mean I'm a vampire princess?

Jessica Packwood is looking forward to the first day of her senior year, doing math problems in her head, like any good mathlete would, as she waits for the bus then she sees him. Jessica doesn't know the stranger watching her but he seems to know her. As she climbs the stairs on the bus she here him softly call "Anatanasia". How does he know this name? it is her name from before, when she lived in Romania, before she was adopted as a baby.
When Jess gets to school he is there she learns his name is Lucius Vladescu, he is from Romania and seems to be stalking Jess. When Jess' mom picks her up after school her friend Mindy mentions Lucius and after her mom pressures Jess she tells her about the boy and what his name is. Jess is surprised by her mothers reaction when mom invites the boy over for dinner.
This is when we learn that Jessica's adopted parents are vegan hippies that have never told her about her past. You can only imagine this down to earth Pennsylvania teens reaction to Lucius' news that she is a vampire princess and she is betrothed to marry him and bring peace to their people. Jessica thinks Lucius and her parents are crazy because there is no way she is a vampire much less that she is going to marry a stranger.
The rest of the book progresses as Jessica first refuses to believe Lucius and refuses to have anything to do with him to believing him and trying to get him to accept and marry her. This book is Beth Fantaskey's first and it shows the characters are for the most part dull and one dimensional although it does have some charming moments. I don't think this would be a good book for teens and teachers to read because if i was bored in parts then most teens would never finish. I think Ms. Fantaskey has great potential as a writer and I hope that her next book has better developed characters.

6 comments:

Danielle Bartman said...

DO you think that this author made this book, in order to compete with Twilight and that is why her book may not have been so great, because she was trying to use the vampire idea, but could not succeed in it?

averch said...

Danielle,
I was just going to write the same thing. It seems as though this is one of those books that competes with Twilight series. Have you seen that recently, not only have books been "vampire", but many TV shows have been doing the same thing. Its becoming a teenage trend.

Stephanie said...

I love trying to keep up with the trends in books. Reading Twilight, made more interested in Vampire books like True Blood. I think theme books are great, because it might draw reluctant readers into the book, and may even get them hooked on a certain topic or author.

Clarissa H. said...

I completely agree! I have seen so many books and TV shows that look like Twilight spin-offs! None of these "spin-offs," though, have seemed to be very successful. However, generally I do think that vampires provide good material for many books - Dracula, Interview with a Vampire I thought were great novels...

Krystal Tanami said...

I do think that the author was trying to ride the Twilight bandwagon it's just a shame that while the idea was pretty good that didn't come across very well in the book.

Twilena said...

ok, i know you most think this is a nother book trying to compete with twilight, believe me, it's not...
I am a big, big BIG twilight fan and this book, even when its about vampires, when you read it, you are not thinking how it might relate to twilight, jessica's guide is actually a good book, very enjoyable, well written, funny, romantic, with a guy that even when he is as gentlemanly as Edward, he has a bit of a darker side, i'm not saying it's better than the twilight, i would never ever say that, but its actually wuite nice and im sure if you just give it a chance, you will like it as much as i did.

by the way, I apologyse if my english is not very good, im from mexico so im sure i must have some grammar mistakes, but i just wanted to let you know what i tought of this book, thanks! bye