The Radleys

Matt Haig

The Radleys are a normal family: Mum (Helen), Dad (Peter) and two teenage children. Except they all have to wear SPF 60 sunscreen all the time, are violently allergic to garlic, and are constantly thirsty (the kids never understanding why). The parents know: they are all "abstaining" vampires (who have rejected the vampire way of life and try to live as normal "unbloods", never tasting live blood).

They have kept their children in the dark until one day teenager Clara discovers the joy of drinking blood when a boy attacks her. Suddenly the parents have to explain to their children who they really are. A secret anti-vampire police unit comes looking for Clara and Peter calls his estranged brother Will (a practising vampire) for help, little knowing that Will is the last person Helen ever wants to see.

This is a darkly comic and unconventional look at modern vampire life in the suburbs, but is just as much about families and family secrets, and is definitley not suitable for the kids! Some of the funniest moments come as teenager Rowan tries to come to terms with being a vampire as well as a normal teenage boy.

(Reviewed by Angela)

Being Human

This is a story of a vampire (Mitchell) a werewolf (George) and a ghost (Annie) who are all living in a flat together in Bristol trying to "Be Human".

The best character by far is George the dorky werewolf. Mitchell is good as an on-the-wagon blood junkie and Annie who thinks she has to stay as a ghost as she has unfinished business on earth. The bad guys were all nasty and loathsome, which was great.

The first episode was slow, but stick with it! I love the supernatural theme and the under lying stories behind these characters that will make you think about what’s out there and do they truly exist and live in the fringes of our society. The story flicks back and forward between the past and the present. We get to see how they became what they are and how this haunts them.

The library has series 1 & series 2. Series 3 is currently screening now in England so we should be seeing it here sometime this year.

(Reviewed by Michelle A)

The passage

Justin Cronin

Yes, this is a novel with vampires involved. But before you yawn and say "Not another vampire book!", this is not your Twilight version of vampires. In fact, the word "vampire" is hardly mentioned. It is more like a post-apocalyptic novel than a vampire one; the first half of the book

descibes the beginning of the apocalypse, the second is set 100 years later when a vampire virus has wiped out most of the world, leaving only a few survivors. Yes, there are a lot of characters and the tale is reasonably complex, but the story is held together by Amy, a little girl abandoned by her mother, who may hold the key to the whole situation. If you enjoy Stephen King's epics, you might just enjoy this engrossing tale too. Apparently the movie rights have already been taken up by Ridley Scott, so it will be interesting to see how the story is tackled in film format.

(Reviewed by Angela)

A Bite to Remember

Lynsay Sands

Set in L.A. ‘A Bite to Remember’ is an ingenious novel based on the story that immortals/vampires originated from Atlantis. Atlantis was so advanced that they combined nano-technology and bio-engineering to create healing nanos that repair damage and keep the body in peak condition. In this novel an immortal, Vincent Argeneau, is being sabotaged by another unknown immortal and so he calls in Jackie Morrisey, a mortal P.I., to catch the saboteur. As the attacks escalate from property damage to bodily harm Vincent and Jackie discover they are life mates. But when the saboteur kills Vincent’s employees and kidnaps Jackie after she becomes immortal with the intent of killing her in a twisted irrational bid for revenge the race is on for Vincent to save her.

The character I most admire is Jackie because even though she has bad experiences with immortals she overcomes it in order to find her destiny. I would recommend this book to mature teens and rate it 8/10.

(Reviewed by Samantha)