Title: Sucks to be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe)
Author: Kimberly Pauley
Pages: 293
Mirrorstone Books, 2008
Genre: Vampire/Contemporary Fiction
Recommended to: Teen girls, 13 and up
Rating: A
Mina Hamilton is your average high school senior: always hanging out with her BFF Serena, hoping that her huge crush, Nathan Able, will ask her to prom, and stressing about school. But there's one not-so-ordinary aspect of her life: her parents are vampires, and they've just broken an important vampire law: keeping a human in the house is strictly banned. As if her social worries aren't enough, now Mina's going to have to make a huge decision: she'll have to become a vampire, too, if she wants to keep her family together. Now she's going to vampire lessons with a teacher that looks like a wolf, visiting "blood bars" with her crazy uncle where the main cocktail is an O negative, and trying to decide exactly what she wants to be!
I simply loved this one. I just picked it up at the library one day with fair expectations, but I was blown away by how creative, funny, and absolutely awesome this book was. Kimberly Pauley has such an imagination that it was just a blast to read Sucks to Be Me. I loved all of the slightly-zany characters, the funny vampire puns, and all of Mina's sarcastic journal entries. Mina has a real voice that is just a ton of fun to read because it's like she's a real person. Her reactions to some aspects of the vampire world were just laugh-out-loud hilarious, and the overall story was fast-paced, moving, and just fangtastic (LOL).
However, I felt like the ending was a bit abrupt, a bit rushed, like the author just wanted to be done with the story. Some events around the ending just felt unnecessary and a bit pointless, to be honest.
Go. Read. It. Now! I hope there will be more from Mina in the future--I'm not done with her wit and humor yet! Brava, Ms. Pauley! (:
13 comments:
How funny that you just reviewed this one! I was planning on putting up a review this weekend of this book too. I really enjoyed it as well and thought it was a fresh break from the serious angsty vampire books.
-Sarah
I like the word "fangtastic." [lol] and I'm glad you liked Sucks to Be Me.
^ tru, that word cracked me up. it sounds like a funny book, it was definitely tough for Mina to make her choice.
This book was fresh and cute. I like to read a light-hearted book and this one fit the fang...LOL. That was a terrible pun. I so suck at this...ok ok..I will stop while I am ahead.
I entered to win a contest for this one but sadly didn't :( Wish I had, you make it sound so good! Alas, I cut off buying books till I make it halfway through my current pile and no libraries around, so...
Steph
Oh and my word verification thingo was HERSHE. Add a "Y" and I'm on it :)
I LOVED this book!!! It was a nice break from all the dark vampire books out there, and I loved the ending. I can't wait for the sequel.
Sounds great, I would love to read it - you know, the premise reminds me so much of Tokimeki Tonight by Koi Ikeno /http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokimeki_Tonight).
Thanks for reviewing that book--I've seen a good bit about it on Kimberly Pauley's site but not too much elsewhere so it's nice to see a review...and that you liked it :)
I'll have to do a library search soon.
-Lucile
I like fun vampire books :) What a hard decision to make for Mina!
Glad you liked it. I can't find a copy and ordered it without readin it, which I rarely do!
It's nice to read a review from somebody in the target demographic. I read and reviewed this last fall and found it to be quite awful. I felt the writing was mediocre, the character development was flat and predictable, the plot was trite and predictably linear and the format was trying too hard. I acknowledge again and again that I'm not the demographic (I'm a male for one...and for two, even though I read and enjoy a lot of young adult lit, I'm well beyond my early teens).
So I'm glad to hear a report of absolute joy from a teen reader. I handed this book over to my 16 year old sis to get her opinion, but she hasn't gotten around to it yet (she's not the voracious reader I'd like her to be).
Anyway, thanks for the review.
the title alone is brillilant!
Wow, rated an A? I'm definitely gonna have to pick up this book then! I've been thinking about reading it for a while, but things have always come up. But now I'll be serious about wanting to read it. Thanks for the review!
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