Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Brenda

Sucks to be Me - the All-True confessions of Mina Hamilton Teen Vampire (maybe)

There are a LOT of Teen Vampire novels on the market now and I think I've read about 3/4 of them. This one is a worthy addition to the genre. Mina's voice is so clearly just a normal teen girl with loving parents (who happen to be vampires) and a best friend (who she can't confide in regarding the whole vampire thing) and a crush on a boy or two (one of whom is totally into the vampire thing, and one of whom isn't).

Mina is a 17-year-old girl who has known since she was 10 that her parents were vampires, but it hasn't really affected her average suburban life. True, they don't exactly love sunbathing, and they don't sleep, and they forget to eat, but Mina has adjusted to all that. But the Vampire Council didn't know that Mina existed, and now that they know, she has to attend Vampire Sessions and her weird Uncle Mortimer is her sponsor.
Worst of all, she has just 4 weeks to decide if she wants to become a vampire or not. She slowly learns all the things about the vampire life that her parents never told her, in order to give her a normal upbringing. On top of all that, there's a trio of cute to gorgeous boys that seem to suddenly be interested in her. This book is Mina's journal, and Mina never met a situation that couldn't use a good pro and con list along with little chapter header stickers of vampires myths and the truth as Mina sees it.

The most difficult thing about book about alternative worlds is getting the "rules of the world" in there without having a big boring chapter about how the world works. This is a clever way of doing that, we learn what the vampire rules are right along with Mina. The chapter headers of myths and truths with little drawings of bats and other pictures that illustrate the myths are really cute. All the characters are fully drawn, but Mina's voice is what really made me love this book. She's so typically a teen, who thinks a lot of this vampire stuff is TOO GROSS FOR WORDS. I laughed out loud at several places because of Mina's observations.

Light and funny - a GREAT beach read for teens and anyone who likes vampires in any guise!