Adam Rex

Fat Vampire

Kayleigh Septer

** spoiler alert **
           [here be spoilers]

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It grabbed my attention in the beginning, but slowly petered out towards the middle and the end. I was reading the reviews that users had left, and thought to myself, "Well, it can't be that bad". It was, it really was.

The story starts with our main character, Doug, who at 15 has been turned into a vampire. His friend Jay is the only one who knows, and is keeping it a secret for his vampire friend. Then part way through the story, Doug gets invited to some sort of vampire club, is mentored by another vampire, Stephin David, who just happens to be gay (Doug likes to point this out - and likes to throw out extremely homophobic lines). Doug, at some point, starts becoming the vampire he always wanted to be, and then the book goes downhill. Where did this change come from? Why is Doug suddenly becoming a douchebag? I get that he drank from a deer, but why does this warrant his douchebaggary? Does drinking from a deer make you insta-douche? He was a likable character at the beginning, and then I came to despise him in the end, even though the author tried to redeem him when he died.

There were random characters thrown in all over the place. That vampire hunting show? Great premise, but wasn't fleshed out enough. Where did that guy, from the show, come from in the end? How did he know that they were going to be there? He just kind of popped out of nowhere, and started shooting stakes at people.

Sejal was an interesting character, and I wish the author would have given us more insight to her character.

This book had a lot of promise, but it didn't live up to my expectations.

Manda

First off, I have to say I ALWAYS have a problem with male leads. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t relate or what, but I always have a hard time with books with male leads. I, however, loved Doug Lee from the beginning. Adam Rex created this socially awkward teen guy that had the ability to pull me into his life immediately. I really enjoyed this book. It took the whole vampire phenomenon going on in literature recently and put a fun, humorous spin on it.

I not only enjoyed the main character, Doug Lee, but his cast of friends were great too. You’ll absolutely adore quirky, dorky Jay and Cat will make you yearn to be just like her. My only gripe about the book and the reason for only 4 screams is Sejal. She is supposed to be Doug’s love interest, but I sometimes felt like she was just there. I would have loved for her to be a more prominent part of the whole story and not just hop in randomly. There was also a few random times when I got lost in the plot and the reasoning on why things were happening, but they didn’t really take away from the greatest of the novel.

All in all, this is a very funny and refreshing spin on the world of vampires and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre. It was a breath of fresh air among all the similar serious vampire books out there.

Fat Vampire

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