Yup, I read yet another series of vampire novels, I’m blaming Alexander Skarsgård who plays Eric in ‘True Blood’ because he is so freaking hot that I just have to get more vampire loving. In truth, vampire novels are all over the place. I know that vampires never really fall out of pop culture vogue, but they are more prevalent in pop culture awareness than I have ever recalled. De La Cruz’s ‘Blue Blood’ series starts with the first book named appropriately enough ‘Blue Bloods’.
One of the most fun elements when it comes to vampire fandom is that ever series seems to take encompass its own set of vampire rules and regulations. In Stephenie Meyer’s case her ‘Twilight’ vampires never sleep and have no problems being in the sun except for the way they sparkle. Charlainie Harris’s blood suckers are organized in almost feudal communities and are trying to make strides in having equal rights with humans in their perspective lands. Anne Rice’s creations don’t have sex but manage to become rock Gods regardless. Melissa De La Cruz’s vampire lore is probably the most original; her vampire world is populated with fallen angles who are condemned to be vampires because of their unfortunate backing of you know who.
‘Blue Bloods’ is a fast read, the type of book that even a teen with no concentration can get through within an afternoon. This first book in the series outlines that the blue bloods that the world reads about from New York City actually have blood that is blue because they aren’t human. Schuyler Van Alen never fits into her world of prep despite her family’s long prestigious history amongst the other American blue bloods that came over on the Mayflower. She attends her blue blood based school wearing the latest in Goth gear and goes without washing her hair for freakishly long periods of time. Her best friend has been her male buddy since early elementary school. She lives with her grandmother in a mansion that is a shadow of itself while her mother lies in a hospital room from a coma that doctors can’t explain. Her life is just plugging along until she finds out that she is a vampire born from a vampire mother whose husband was human – the first such case in the history of vamps.
I can’t say I loved this book, or even the following books, there are three in the series with a fourth to be released in hardback in October. I am intrigued with the premise of these stories although I find the characters not well drawn out. Schuyler, despite being a New York blue blood vampire Goth, is as exciting as chalk. De La Cruz also makes her a teen model with a billboard in Times Square and still she makes the reader want to yawn.
Like the ‘House of Night’ novels written by mother & daughter team, P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast, the ‘Blue Blood’ books are written for primarily a young adult audience and feature high school aged characters. Both series appear to be written with a larger plot in mind especially De La Cruz’s books. As noted earlier, she has intriguing twists to her vampire genre although I could live without the whole twin marriage bit. If you start the books they don’t really seem to stand alone so you need to start with ‘Blue Bloods’.
Although I think there are better vampire books on the market, the ‘Blue Blood’ series is fun and all of the books are fast reads.
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