Boys That Bite by Mari Mancusi

First published in 2006.

My mom is so going to kill me if she finds out I'm turning into a vampire.

Okay, so technically she can't because I'm immortal. Well, not yet. See, due to the worst case of mistaken identity with my dark-side-loving twin sister at a Goth hangout called Club Fang, Magnus, a vampire hottie, went for my innocent neck instead of hers. Now, if I don't reverse it in time, Magnus will be my blood mate forever and I'm doomed to be a blood-gulping, pasty, daylight-hating vampire. Believe me, it seriously bites.

After the unfortunate slaying of the vampire leader, it's up to me, my sister, and Magnus to find the one thing that can solve my problem - the Holy Grail. No joke. I seriously hope I can get out of this in time because, somehow, I scored the hottest prom date in my school, the mouth-watering Jake Wilder. And I do not want to be a vampire for the prom - let alone the rest of eternity . . . (book back blurb)

My trustworthy Canadian friend who heads up the YA section at her local Chapters recommended this series to me for one reason - the Lost Boys reference in, I believe, it's the second book (Ok, I told you people I had a problem, didn't I? A loooooooong time ago.). And because we have really similar tastes in reading material so I pretty much take her recommendations to heart since we're pretty much the same person in that regard. I figured I'd read the entire series since I didn't want to start in the middle and she warned me about this one.

And she was right.

It's Clueless with fangs. I was waiting for 'gag me with a spoon' to make an appearance. Sunny was such a vapid, unrelatable character for most of the book that I couldn't care one way or another what happened to her. The whole valley girl thing really grated on me, as did the constant brand whoring. One of the constant pieces of advice I've heard from agents is not to name drop or label drop in your story too much because it'll end up dating your book, which is not necessarily a good thing. I have a feeling that this was supposed to be Sunny's personality but holy crap. Enough is enough already. There was nothing but Prada and Gucci and Diesel in that air head of hers. And that moron Jake that she kept going on about.

The whole teen voice, to me anyway, sounded just this side of contrived. I don't want to say it was forced because that's going a little too far but it wasn't natural-sounding either. It felt like the author was trying just a little too hard to make her sound like a "typical" teenager and it kept splashing over the brim. I know girls can really talk like that but I hope that they're deeper than what Sunny was. And I was in her head the entire time and only went ankle deep.

I have to say, though, I liked the end. Sunny redeemed herself a bit when she broke out of her whole dumbass shell and started acting like a normal human being instead of a superficial peabrain that she was throughout most of the book. She showed depth and caring and sacrifice and I only wish more of that side of her was present in the book because I probably would have liked it more. I mean, I can watch Heathers and they all talk like that but there's depth. Talk like a valley girl all you want so long as you're deeper than a puddle. Because of that I was all around disinterested with Sunny up until the last few chapters.

I actually liked Magnus. Out of all of them, he was probably my favorite character if for nothing more than his adamance to put the welfare of other people ahead of his own despite the fact that other person was completely selfish for most of the time. He seemed like a pretty cool guy and I liked the fact that he's not really into the whole Goth scene but just plays the part. Puts a twist on the character and doesn't make him a stereotype within Mancusi's world. I still don't understand why he fell for Sunny outside of the whole DNA thing (blood mates are made based on DNA, identical twins have identical DNA, thus switching Sunny and Rayne wouldn't mean much in the mates department). Her personality just sucked most of the time and being behind Sunny's eyes and knowing her every thought and action, I really didn't see what was so appealing about her. Thus is the enigma of guys.

The whole Vampire Scent thing got to be a bit much, though. The secretary? Come on. I think that was supposed to be funny but I just saw that as really forced. And the whole thing with Jake? Um, yeah. So apparently the Vampire Scent can make a guy want to hump your leg. Awesome. Again, a bit much.

Overall, I mean, it's not bad but it's definitely not something to write home about. I'd recommend it just for the ending, maybe the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the book or so. The rest of it I could have done without.