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Team Human.
Feb. 4th, 2013 18:47Larbalestier, Justine and Sarah Rees Brennan. Team Human. New York: HarperTeen, 2012.
I've enjoyed previous books I've read by Larbalestier and Brennan, and I've wanted to read this book since I heard them talk about it at Sirens 2011, when they said, "We wanted to write a book about the best friend in Twilight" and we all said, "What best friend in Twilight?"
The book follows Mel, a teenager in the vampire city of New Whitby, Maine, whose best friend falls in love with Victorian-era vampire Francis. Mel, needless to say, believes that friends don't let friends date vampires, and is determined to thwart this course of events; by the end of the book, everyone has been forced to examine their preconceptions, as well as who gets to make choices for whom.
I enjoyed Mel, who is Chinese-American and not afraid to tell people that they are racist (bonus: unambiguously non-whitewashed cover!), and I enjoyed Larbalestier and Brennan's hilarious writing, which is laid on particularly thick in the first part of the book, which is basically a straight-up, and very welcome, satire of Twilight. Eventually the book modulates to something more serious, but I didn't have a problem with the transition, and I enjoyed the story all the way through. It's not the deepest vampire romance ever, but it does very obviously subvert some of that subgenre's tropes in a very funny way, and it was a very enjoyable read.
I've enjoyed previous books I've read by Larbalestier and Brennan, and I've wanted to read this book since I heard them talk about it at Sirens 2011, when they said, "We wanted to write a book about the best friend in Twilight" and we all said, "What best friend in Twilight?"
The book follows Mel, a teenager in the vampire city of New Whitby, Maine, whose best friend falls in love with Victorian-era vampire Francis. Mel, needless to say, believes that friends don't let friends date vampires, and is determined to thwart this course of events; by the end of the book, everyone has been forced to examine their preconceptions, as well as who gets to make choices for whom.
I enjoyed Mel, who is Chinese-American and not afraid to tell people that they are racist (bonus: unambiguously non-whitewashed cover!), and I enjoyed Larbalestier and Brennan's hilarious writing, which is laid on particularly thick in the first part of the book, which is basically a straight-up, and very welcome, satire of Twilight. Eventually the book modulates to something more serious, but I didn't have a problem with the transition, and I enjoyed the story all the way through. It's not the deepest vampire romance ever, but it does very obviously subvert some of that subgenre's tropes in a very funny way, and it was a very enjoyable read.