(no subject)

[kippurbird]

I was at Barnes and Nobel yesterday and saw the oddest book... well I saw a very depressing book. It was in the kid's section for the preteen crowd and it was a book about a twelve year old girl who was also a vampire. I skimmed a bit through it and the girl had normal every day problems and none of them seemed to relate to being a vampire. She still ate normal food - like spaghetti and meatballs, went out in the sun and could tan, it didn't look like she was going to stay twelve. It's called "At First Bite" by Ruth Ames.

The first bit of it is available to read on Amazon.

I'm having hard time sympathizing with the protagonist. Because apparently the worst thing in her life involves the fact that she accidentally changes into a bat sometimes and that's worse than split ends and chipped nail polish. And if she suddenly became unpopular it would be worse than randomly changing into a bat. "Don't get me wrong. I'm still popular. I shudder to think what not being popular would be like (worse than surprised bat-shifting, possibly). Sorry, but as the Unpopular kid at school? Screw you. And really? Turning into a bat is worse than split ends and chipped nail polish? What about something more important like... stomach flu or your bike breaking or loosing your homework. I don't know. I was never that shallow. Also I never cared about split ends.

It just, I started reading the book and I just didn't give a damn about her. It feels like wish fulfillment again. The sort where girls wish they had the problem of losing popularity instead of not being popular at all. Or the only thing they have to worry about is split ends and chipped nail polish.

Comments

[thecapillary.livejournal.com]

How does nonsense like that get even published?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

People think it'll make money, plays to the lowest common denominator and it sells.

Sadly.

[vytresna.livejournal.com]

Being unpopular isn't worth fearing; in most schools, twelve-year-old girls can be hated losers, hated tyrants or hated boot-lickers. Loser is easily the most comfortable of the three positions, because at least you get to be honest.

I mean, not that 80% of the books about middle school don't go into great detail about the matter.

But as for the deal with this author? Yeah, I can only think she generally writes for the younger-set teen magazines or something. That's the only world I can think of where people treat split ends as emergencies and vampirism is strictly cosmetic.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I hate this vampire and want her to die. She's such a shallow protagonist that it HURTS.

[falconwhitaker.livejournal.com]

Does she have a weakness for garlic? 'Cos I totally want to stuff a truffle full of garlic then feed it to her. >.>

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

I read the first couple of pages. The author seems to have a bad case of Totally Radical (TVTropes link).