47. Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley

Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley
ISBN: 0786950285
Mirrorstone, New York, 2008
293 pages

Teaser: Sixteen year old Mina's parents are vampires, and the time has come for Mina to decide if she will become a vampire as well.

Summary: Almost 17 year old Mina has to decide if she wants to become a vampire like her parents, or stay a human. Mina wavers back and forth, trying to decide if she really wants to take the plunge. Meanwhile, she is trying to work out her feelings for several boys, do well in her classes, and figure out what she is going to do for prom. This is a light, fluffy read for vampire fans.

Evaluation: This book was a fun, light read, but it wasn't really to my taste. I liked how it was different from the dark, broody vampire books, but it just didn't seem to have a good enough foundation for me to really believe the author's premise. I was constantly reminding myself to just go with it, and ignore the various things that felt underdeveloped, shallow, or just plain illogical. I didn't feel like there was any real moral message or purpose to the story, the conflicts felt a bit too straight forward, and it just didn't feel like something I could sink my teeth into.

The fact that any secret vampire society would not only encourage, but require, teens who found out about vampires to become one while still a teenager, struck me as a major plot hole. While the book discussed the need to move every decade or so to avoid detection, this would only work for older vampires. For a 16 year old, the longest they could realistically expect to stay put would be three years, at the outside. Careful work with makeup, clothing, and hairstyles might be able to fool people into not realizing that a teenager hasn't changed much for a few years, but the rapid changes teenagers go through will work against her. MC has essentially chosen to continually repeat high school for the rest of her foreseeable future. In addition, while Mina is almost 17, the girl on the cover looks much younger, like a preteen rather than a teen. This feeling of Mina being younger than 17 was also present in the book. While the author claims Mina is just shy of 17, Mina's voice sounds more like a preteen than a high school girl.

Challenge issues and age recommendation: Vampires are the main topic in this book, which may draw protests. Things like drinking blood are mentioned, which should be expected with vampires, but there is no stalking of humans in order to drink their blood. There isn't really much else I could really think of as too offensive. I'd okay this book for readers 12 and up.