Customer Reviews

Vampire Island

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

 

 

The Livingstone's are vegetarians. They're vampires, and they live in Manhattan. You just know it's not going to be a walk in the park--Central Park, that is.

Adele Griffin's Vampire Island takes us into the world of Lexie, Maddy and Hudson, a world where vampires and humans live together, but not all vampires are fruit-bat hybrids. I really enjoyed following Lexie through her boy problems, Maddy spying on the neighbors, and Hudson setting out to save the world.

Hudson has a small language problem. He uses old world words (like "yewn," "O' Happy Day" and "whilst") in a new world. He wants to help save the planet from global warming, so he makes people write on both sides of the paper, use the least amount of electricity possible, and sometimes has his sister Maddy scare kids into not using as much throw-away paper or plastic at lunch. By night he loves to fly through Central Park, talking to bat friends. By day he talks to the animals his parent's pet sit.

Lexie can do things only bats can do, echo-sounding, super-fast reflexes (I liked the coin catching trick), double-jointed knees. These attract the attention of the hottest guy in school, Dylan Easterby. Dylan happens to be the same age as Lexie (her human age anyway). Lexie runs into trouble because Mina, the most popular girl in school, also happens to want Dylan.

Of all the vampire children, Maddy has the most trouble adapting to the vegan diet, but she's willing to try some interesting new foods. She drinks hot pomegranate juice every morning, pretending it's blood. She eats mosquitoes and ticks to get the blood they have taken from others. She also has a keen sense for uncovering and hunting down pureblood vampires. When two move in across the street from the Livingstone's, she is not about to let them hurt her family. She's an awful cook, but that doesn't stop her from making cookies with garlic and holy water. She can also be bossy. She gets Hudson, her younger brother, to dress up as a girl elf scout, and has him sell the special cookies to the vampires. She's also disappointed that her brother looks better in her elf scout uniform then she does.

Adele Griffin's Vampire Island is a wonderful, funny, suspenseful story. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and I would recommend it for anyone who likes adventure, magic, creatures of the night, and garlic cookies.

Vampire Island tells the story of three siblings - Lexie, Maddy and Hudson. These siblings aren't your normal kids - or, I should say, your normal vampires. They're fruit-bat hybrids, so they only eat fruit. Although Maddy is starting to develop a further taste for protein. . . . Mysterious (and possibly dangerous) neighbors aside, these three are mostly just trying to survive there normal lives. Masking their identity and special-powers at school is harder than you'd think.

I have very mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, I loved its dark humor - reminiscent of Pure Dead Magic by Debi Gliori. I thought it was very cool to have a teenage heroine who quotes dead poets. Almost immediately I developed a sort of fondness for some of the characters, Maddy in particular. All that aside, this book was not exactly satisfying. It seemed to leave off too suddenly with too many loose threads. Obviously there's going to at least one sequel if not more, but this particular episode of the story didn't feel finished. The writing was not spectacular to begin with, and this leaving-off made me even more disgruntled.

It was an OK read. If you're in the mood for an easy-read with slightly-ridiculous Gothic settings and situations (which I was, strange as it sounds) then you'll have fun with this. Just don't go into it expecting something great.

The book Vampire Island is a really fun interesting book. Adele Griffin really captures the fun quirky sides of her characters that all preteen and teenage readers are interested in reading about. My daughter has a copy of this book and I read it too. We both loved the character Maddy. She is a fun fierce girl. I would say anyone who gets this book will enjoy Adele Griffin's world of young Vampires in New York City and just maybe they will see some of themselves in the characters and the social situations all kids face no matter where they live!

Meet the Livingstones. Recent transplants to Manhattan from the Old World, they live above a vegetarian restaurant in an old brownstone on the island of Manhattan. Mom and Dad play in a rock band called the Dead Ringers. Their three children --- Lexie, Maddy and Hudson --- are dealing with friends, neighbors, crushes and growing up, just like kids everywhere. Okay, maybe not quite like kids everywhere. You see, the entire Livingstone family are vampires, or vegetarian fruit-bat/vampire hybrids to be exact. As a result, the Livingstone children are facing a few extra challenges as they try to fit in to their new New World lifestyle.

Oldest daughter Lexie has a crush on the hottest guy in her eighth-grade class, Dylan Easterby. But do her batlike habits (such as double-jointed knees and lightning-fast reflexes) and her tendency to quote gloomy, doomed poets set her apart from the crowd, or do they just make her seem odd? What's more, Lexie's best friend is exhibiting some seriously weird symptoms. What comes over him after dark?

Middle child Maddy is beginning to have second thoughts about her family's vegan lifestyle. When the family's new neighbors, the von Kriks, treat Maddy to a dinner of steak tartar, Maddy's thirst for blood grows almost as strong as her nose for trouble. Maddy suspects that the von Kriks are genuine pureblood Old World vampires, and in Harriet the Spy style, she grows determined to catch them in their lies, even if it means lacing tempting cookies with garlic.

Youngest child Hudson may be blessed with good looks and the ability to fly through the city at night, talking with other species as he goes, but he's pretty clueless when it comes to dealing with his fellow nine-year-olds. He uses Old World words like "whilst" and fails to understand their slang. But Hudson is about to experience a new kind of social suicide when he's appointed as an environmental Protector and embarks on an anti-litter crusade in his elementary school.

Imagining how a family of vampire hybrids might fit into 21st century New York life offers Adele Griffin endless opportunities to explore awkward situations, comical encounters and clever modern twists on classic vampire lore. The pun-filled narrative is full of lines like this one: "Ever since the night of her non-professed love, Lexie had been avoiding Dylan like the plague. Specifically, the Bombastus Plague of 1837."

Although the siblings' relationships and their interpersonal struggles at school and in the neighborhood are well developed, some readers may be confused by Griffin's overall vampire mythology. The differences between Old World and New World rules, the hierarchy of various types of vampires and half vampires, the role of the supervisory all-seeing Argos --- all these elements are introduced but lack full development and exploration. Since the ending of VAMPIRE ISLAND is left wide open for a sequel, chances are that Griffin will have more opportunities to fully flesh out her mythology while satisfying young readers' thirst for funny, non-frightening vampire adventures.

It was a good book. Maddy was a little suspicious, and so was I. I think that the Von Kriks were nice people but they were really rude to her. Lexie was overall my favorite because she quoted lots of stuff and I like quotes. I like the part when she was wearing all white for "Doomed Poets" day or something. Hudson was hard to understand because all of his chapters in the book were either boring or they didn't make any sense. I just wasn't that interested in reading those. But, it was good.

Lexie, Maddy, and Hudson aren't your average kids. Their parents are in a rock band called The Dead Ringers and walk dogs for a living. Hudson calls the oven the yewn and nags his classmates about saving the world to the point that no one wants to speak to him. Maddy spies on neighbors while eating ticks. And Lexie, well, she quotes dead poets - mostly the classics, but let us not forget Tupac and Kurt Cobain. Oh and they're not exactly human, but not exactly bats, but not exactly vampires either - they're fruit-bat hybrids and they're just learning to fit into the new world of New York. They're also just learning about aging, crushes, school age politics, embracing their uniqueness, hiding their uniqueness. The usual.

I really struggled with what to rate this. It is a quick, fun, fast read. Maybe too fast. Without spoilers: The main Maddy storyline, which the main storyline of the book really, it seems to just sort of end in a rushed cop out sort of way. Tied up neatly with a bow on it. In such a way that made it feel as though this whole book was nothing more than a set up to ensure further books would happen. Which is fine, it actually worked, as I said this book was fun, I've already purchased the next. But given how the main storyline went on seeming rather important and just ended, it did feel as though there was room for more here. Either more in that storyline. Or more of the other siblings. Or more of the parents. I'm not sure what exactly was missing. A little of all of the above maybe. For this "what was missing?" feeling alone, 4 stars. For fun factor it would have been 5.

Although an interesting premise, I wasn't happy with some of the themes of bullying and lying. Could have been fleshed out more. Probably will not buy the remainder of the series for my young relatives.

Great price, speedy delivery. Can't beat Amazon when you're looking for that certain book!