Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story – Adam Rex
Another YA novel that I had to read after reading the blurb. And it turned out to be a strange mixture. If I’d written a review having read just the first half of it, it might have read like this:
You really have to feel sorry for Doug – an overweight, socially awkward nerd whose social status hasn’t really improved now that he’s become a vampire. He can’t persuade any hot girls to go out in the dark with him, the rest of the school just thinks he has a bad skin problem and even the vampire mentoring program leaves him trailing as the last to be selected, just like on school sports days. And as if that wasn’t bad enough – after an unfortunate incident when he tried to bleed a panda at the zoo – he’s got sleazy tabloid producer Alan and the cast of his tacky reality show Vampire Hunters on his tail. LOL funny.
But then, around the halfway mark, the book took a very different turn. The laughs were fewer, there was a distinctly dark undertone and Doug’s character changed into something meaner and less sympathetic. And then there was the ending. Which seemed to smack of the author either losing interest or not quite knowing what to do with his characters any more. Several were left without a resolution and the ending itself was abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying.
So, all in all, a terrific start, but it just didn’t pan out. Disappointing.
Protect and Defend - Richard North Patterson
Courtroom dramas have never been my favourite genre, but there have been exceptions over the years and RNP's novels have always been amongst them. I had the distinct niggling thought that I'd read this before, but if I have it's been so long ago that I remembered nothing of the plot, so it hardly mattered. RNP showed his usual deft hand in presenting all the difficult legal, ethical and personal issues surrounding the abortion debate, treating all sides with respect, but promoting the ultimate theme that when politics, religion and vested interests get involved in such matters, it's often the most vulnerable who get forgotten as they become pawns to be tugged back and forth amongst the point-scoring.
LabRat
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly. Aramis: Yes, sorry. Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
