I've always had a thing for vampires, which is a good thing considering the current trend in teen lit. Even though it was a little under my level, I listened to the audio version of "Eighth Grade Bites" by Heather Brewer. As subliminal as its title suggests, we're almost instantly immersed in vampirism. Vladimir Todd is a half vampire who lives with his best friend's mom since his parents passed away three years ago. Typical of nonhumans, he has to hide who he is from everyone except for his best friend Henry.
I usually don't pay attention to an author unless A) They're so incredible I want to read more books by them or, as in this case B) It's obvious the gender of the author. I'm not an expert on middle school boys, but I doubt they act as love struck as Vlad does. It reeked of femininity. Points were deducted immediately for this; if you're going to write as a guy, do it well.
The characters are stereotypical at best. Henry is the stereotypical boy, Aunt Nellie is the sweet cool mom's friend, etc. etc. The only mildly interesting and unique character is Otis and was the only reason why I kept listening. Vlad is the typical whiny angsty teen that is hard to listen to, and I have the urge to hit him over the head for ignoring the blatantly obvious.
It is standard run-of-the-mill fiction; very little sets it apart from the rest and it can hardly be called original. My guesses of the plot were actually far more complex than what actually occured, leaving me frustrated and wanting to go to Fanfiction.net to rewrite the entire thing. I was very disappointed.
I give it a two out of five, and that's mostly for Otis. And the fact the vampires actually ate people. Except for Vlad and his dad.
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