Customer Reviews

Suck It Up

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At sixteen, Morning McCobb is a recent graduate of the IVL. No, Morning isn't a genius. He is a sixteen-year-old vampire just graduating from the International Vampire League. But this League of Vampires isn't what you would expect; their motto is to "drink culture, not life." They exist peacefully by blending in with humanity -- that is, until now.

Morning is going to be the first to "come out of the closet." He's the kind of vampire the League has been waiting for. Young, nonthreatening, the kid is a sangv! Sangv translation: blood virgin, meaning he's never drunk human blood. In fact, Morning has never drank blood belonging to a living organism, human or animal. He drinks Blood-lite, a soy-based blood substitute!

To help with his coming-out process, Morning is teamed up with Penny Dredful, the owner of PR Agency. It is her responsibility to turn Morning's fifteen-minutes of fame into 24/7 coverage. Credibility is the least of their worries; once Morning pulls a couple of CD's (cell differentiation) and turns from a boy into a dolphin, back into a boy, and then into a tree and back again, most people are believers. But not everyone is a Morning McCobb fan. There is a group of vampires called Loners who haven't conformed to the Leaguer way and still feed on humans. They want Morning eliminated before he reveals all of their secrets.

Is the world ready for Morning McCobb, a real vampire?

SUCK IT UP is another rendition of the growing array of young adult vampire novels. Meehl's take on the vampire lore is interesting, refreshing, and humorous! Debunking the myth of vampires and sun as "solar phobia," as well as their fear of garlic -- hello, bad breath! I also enjoyed the references to superheroes and comic characters, being a fan of the genre myself! Morning wants to be a superhero as well as a firefighter, after his experiences from 9/11. The characters are original, although I didn't hold a strong liking to any of them. Overall, SUCK IT UP was a funny and original. This is a book that I think boys as well as girls would like. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy the vampire sub-genre!

Reviewed by: The Story Siren

Most teen vampire novels drip with dark, gothic atmospheres or devolve into needless whining angst, but this one definately fits the "perky goth" tag. Morning McCobb is anything but your typical dark, brooding teen vampire prince: if anything, he's the antithesis, a lovable, delightfully geeky lover of comicbook superheroes. Among the young members of the cleverly-named IV League, he's a bit of a misfit who falls over himself when he shapeshifts, but his cheerful outlook keep him from falling into the pit of self-pity. The ambitious head of the IV League, a covert organization of vampires who have weaned themselves off the need for human blood, grooms him to be the poster-boy for "Worldwide Out Day" -- his pet project to ennable League vampires to come out of the "selva obscura", the dark forest they have lived within for so long, and mingle with "Lifers", or ordinary humans -- and Morning accepts the role reluctantly at first. But the schemes of a "Loner", a rogue vampire, named DeThanatos, nearly thwart this plan for the reunion of humans and vampires, and endanger Morning's relationship with his PR rep's would-be sophisticated filmmaker daughter.

Slapstick comedy, mischievous turns of phrases, playful tweaks of the vampire mythos, noble derring-do, charmingly awkward romance -- there's a little bit of everything in this book. The pace is a little more slap-dash than I would have liked, but that fits well with the superhero tropes (and comic book references, from X-Men to Superman to heavier material like Alan Moore's Watchmen) that author Brian Meehl liberally sprinkles throughout the story. I'm looking forward to seeing a graphic novel adaptation or sequel to this!

"Lifer: A mortal, or age-challenged, human being. Loner: A vampire who practices the old ways and insists that being a bloodsucking fiend is part of his or her ethnic heritage. Leaguer: A vampire who has conquered the craving for human blood and lives on a diet of animal blood or artificial blood substitutes."

As a tot, orphan Morning McCobb dreamed of being a superhero. At age 16, he managed to get bitten, not by a radioactive spider, but by a vampire. Newly graduated from the super-secret International Vampire League Academy, Morgan has been chosen to be the first modern vampire to `come out' to the mortal humans. If his experiment is a success, it will pave the way for all Leaguers to walk in the light.

Aided by PR specialist Penny Dredful and her wise-cracking daughter Portia, Morgan is ready to show his stuff, as it were, to the sensation seeking press. However, a few obstacles still block his path to fame. There are both `Lifers' and `Loners' who would like nothing better than to drive a stake through his heart. Then too, Morgan will have to control his envy for all things human if he wants to keep his bloodlust for Portia (as well as the more human feelings that she inspires) in check.

Suck It Up is a fun, funky, original take on vampires in the modern world with likable characters and a great story.

This book was great! I found it interesting and not full of dismemberment and such terror and horror. If thats what you are looking for read something else. This book is full of vampire history and ways that vampires could live around us. It also has a good mystery and intense story line to keep you hooked till the last page. I think book two will be coming out as there was a cliff hanger snuck in. I will definetely buy it when it comes out!!

Like a lot of readers, I'm a little "vampired out" these days. But when I read the jacket copy of SUCK IT UP, I was hooked. This book promised to be funny and clever and different. I'm happy to report it totally delivered. Morning McCobb has the misfortune to have become immortal at one of the most awkward times in a person's life...that acne prone insecure and awkward part of his adolescence. And he's frozen there forever. Yeah, I liked him instantly. When he becomes the poster-child for the vampire community, which wants to present a kinder gentler image to the world, you can just imagine the ridiculous moments that will come. Well, actually you can't. And that is part of the fun of this book. It's unpredictable, and well-written, and so entertaining. This book isn't broody and angsty, instead, think of it like the soy-based blood substitute that peaceful Morning McCobb drinks every day: Blood Lite.

Marie Lamba
author of WHAT I MEANT...(Random House Young Adult)

At last I'm reading it! I can't put it down! It's so much fun! Nice to revisit New York on the coat-tail of a vampire.

This book provided a good read for my girls this Summer. I am glad I purchased it!

I read a ton of teen fantasy and science fiction, and I'm also interested in LGBT* literature. Given the cover's references to pride parades and coming out, I expected this book to be an intersection of the two. Insofar as I can tell, this work is either meant as a silly story that nonetheless supports tolerance, or as a satire of modern tolerant and multiculturalist trends.

If it is just a silly story and the author is actually in favor of "equal rights" and "respect" for everybody (these are mentioned as Vampire League goals), then he simply didn't do his homework. It's a fantasy, so maybe I shouldn't expect the author to know a whole lot about the real world...ok, whatever. I'm disappointed in this guy's cluelessness, but nobody's perfect.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the book is intended to be satirical, in which case I'd like to give Mr. Meehl a piece of my mind. Despite the frequent jabs at "PC" language, there are words that actually insult people and hurt feelings - and there are people who respect each other enough not to use those words. Oh, and despite the subtextual parallels between the real LGBT* community and the International Vampire League, our "lusts" aren't inherently violent and dangerous, and being a "virgin" shouldn't make someone a better "poster child." We don't have an agenda or a shady international organization - we're people, like you.

Meehl is ignorant of other groups, too: he claims that the vampires schedule Vampire Coming Out Day on October 1 because it's "not near any major holidays." He must have meant major European-American Christian holidays, because that almost always overlaps with Ramadan and sometimes overlaps with Yom Kippur or the end of the Jewish High Holy Days as well. Not to mention that International Coming Out Day, an LGBT* holiday, is on October 11. Oh, and he drags in the Gypsy stereotype as well, possibly because he hadn't offended enough minorities already. Furthermore, the story is not feminist-friendly or egalitarian: it fails the Bechdel Test, and the protagonist's objectifying and irritating commentary about the female characters got under my skin.

I was prepared to like this book, I really was. I like geeky guys (heck, I play Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday nights with geeky guys) and I like humorous fantasy. Goodness knows lots of fantasy books contain sexist, racist, and otherwise ignorant and intolerant subtexts or themes. But this was too problematic for me to accept.