Vamps [Paperback]

Nancy A. Collins (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 22, 2008 | Series: Vamps

When the sun goes down, New York's true elite all head to one place: Bathory Academy, where the young ladies of the finest vampire families are trained in shapeshifting and luring their prey.

Bathory's reigning queen, Lilith Todd, is the daughter of a powerful vampire businessman, and she knows exactly what she wants from life. She wants to look beautiful for eternity and party till the sun comes up with her gorgeous boyfriend, Jules. And she doesn't want any New Blood upstarts standing in her way.

Enter Cally Monture, an unexpected threat from a trash zip code. When their first meeting leads to tragic results, Lilith is hungry for revenge.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—This novel follows a clique of high-class Old Blood vampires, led by heiress Lilith Todd, who attend a private New York City high school, and their run-in with a strange New Blood girl, Cally, in the park. It turns out to be an ambush by the Van Helsings, vampire hunters, and it leaves one of the Old Bloods dead and the others fleeing for their lives. Peter Van Helsing cannot bring himself to harm Cally, and they begin a forbidden relationship. It turns out that she has a human mother and an Old Blood vampire father whom she has never met. He sends her off to Bathory Academy—where, you guessed it, Lilith and her cronies are not at all happy to see her. Lilith already wants to rip Cally apart, but actually attacks her after she sees her promised husband flirt with the newcomer. This is a light read with some intrigue. It is clearly the set-up for a series. A glossary explaining the origins and terminology of vampire mythology is included.—Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library
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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061349178
• ISBN-13: 978-0061349171
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.7 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nancy A. Collins is the author of numerous horror, dark fantasy & comics stories. A native of Arkansas, she currently resides in Cape Fear with her Significant Other and their Boston Terrier, Chopper.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Vamp-Tastic! October 7, 2008

By Michelle's Minions

Format:Paperback

Vamps is a "bloody" excellent book that can hang with the rest of the vampire best. These bloodsuckers have style.

Lilith Todd is rich, beautiful and fabulous. She comes from a very powerful and wealthy family, so she always gets what she wants, whether it's new shoes or the best looking guy. She is the envy of all the girls at Bathory Academy where only the most elite vampires of society are able to attend. That is, until Cally came along.

Cally Monture is powerful and pretty, but let's just say that she's a little less Prada and a little more Payless. Her day to day dilemmas include mortgage payments and subway fare. She lives with her mother and has never met her father. Her good grades and mysterious connections grant her access to Bathory Academy, but she has no desire to be a part of that snobby world. The best she can do is grin and bear it.

From day one at school, things can only be described as nightmarish and humiliating. She doesn't fit in here at all. Even though they all wear the same uniform, she knows the rest of the girls can sense that she is not like them, and they show it with their cruelty. She especially has problems with queen-bee Lilith Todd.

Cally and Lilith had met once before when a night in the park turned tragic. It nearly ended with both of them getting staked by Van Helsings, a group of vampire hunters. It is because of this chance encounter that their animosity towards each other seems to escalate with each passing hour. It's bad enough that Cally feels like she has to hide her true heritage, but when she has to deal with Lilith's bad attitude and jealousy, it makes for a pretty rough semester.... Then there's the fact that Cally's old school left her playing academic catch-up with the rest of the Bathory girls, making her an even bigger target for mocking. Things can't get any worse for Cally, right? Well, not unless possibly being in love with someone who may have tried to kill you is bad. It's going to be a long year.

Vamps blends the glamour and scandal of high society with the gothic darkness of vampire legend. It's a deliciously vamp-tastic beginning to a series that is well worth keeping up with. Book two, Night Life, will be flying onto shelves in January of 2009. I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. And that's a compliment, coming from a vegetarian. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Bratty Little Vampires August 7, 2010

By Rose Strickman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I did enjoy this book: I'm a big fan of vampire fiction and I enjoyed its light fluffiness, as well as its humor. I simply wish there could have been more depth: both to the characters and to the plot. The vampire hunters did not get enough stage time and the romance between Cally and Peter was unbelievably fast. I understand that one needs to conserve words in a young adult novel, but it could have gone on longer.
It was amusing to watch the vampires, with their incredible shallow selfishness, waste their long, long lives on shopping and bitchy power plays, but it was hard to emphathize with any of the characters: almost all of them were just too vain and nasty. For example, when Lilith's best friend is killed, what she worries about most is whether her father will cut her credit cards.
Still, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Lilith. She does show genuine emotion over her friend's death, and she seems very insecure: she constantly has to look at herself in her secret mirror just to make sure she is still there. She's awful, and I'd hate to have to deal with her in real life, but from the distance of the page I can see that she's a lonely, neglected child who has never been taught how to have a real relationship with anyone. She seems secretly very miserable and longing to escape, but she doesn't know how. I look forward to seeing how she developes as the series continues.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Vamps May 3, 2010

By peaceloveandpat

Format:Paperback

Rate: 3.5
I had this is my book shelf since last year. Thank goodness I finally came around reading it. I know. I know the cover looks like more of a glamor shop and therefore the contents is probably all whack.There I go again with judging the cover. Vamps is nothing like that sure there's still high end New York fashion and high maintenance princess type characters, shallow big egos and selfish.

Lilith, Jules, Carmen, Sergei, Tanith, Melinda, and Oliver are among those vampire family they call Old Blood. They are considered the ruling class of their society. The most powerful and wealthiest of all of them. As usual they are young, rich and fabulous. Lilith is you typical Mean Girl leader. Behind her bravado is an insecure teenage girl, so she look down on most of her peers and bully them into fearing her. After a situation at their usual party spot, the Belfry, Lilith and company was temporary ban until the problem get sorted out. Bored and looking for adventure they decided to go slumming at the nearby Greenwich Village to snack on some drug dealers or prostitute. But they weren't the only ones who have the same idea, a New Blood, (meaning a vampire that is a member of a family that was stripped of bloodrights during battle) or they assumed she was a New Blood from her fashion stand point. Her name is Cally a spirited and talented halfling. She is what they called the Stormgatherer with vampire blood. Their cat fight was interrupted when the Van Helsings showed up killing almost killing them. The casualty lost one One Blood teenager, Lilith best friend and from then on a rivalry between Cally and Lilith was born.

I told my friend. hey this book has our favorite vampire hunter. And she's like..."Buffy?...", I wanted to smack her I do but I cannot blame her, I don't remember the last book I read featuring them. We dearly love Buffy we do, but we agreed that the best vampire hunter written in fiction are the Van Helsings. So I am glad that they exist in this book If I haven't read a lot of vampire books, I would have put this book down. There was a scene where Lilith was in tears about daddy cutting up his credit card than her best friend dying. Ridiculous right? But I am used to their snotty behavior now and this kind of behavior is not too shocking anymore. There's a cliche attraction between Cally and Peter Van Helsing but I am intrigued nonetheless. I'd love to share more of the plot but that will be giving away the whole story, so I'll shut up now. Conclusion: I like where the story is going and I am definitely interested on finding out what's going to happen next. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Vampires Meet Gucci and Prada October 11, 2009

By Between the Lines VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I could tell from the first page that this was not going to be a literary masterpiece. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. It is DEFINATELY a teen book and that being said, I think a lot of teens would really enjoy it. It was very...Beverly Hills 90210 meets vampires. There is a lot of naughty stuff going on, it is very soap opera-like, but a quick and easy read.

I think somewhere we discussed it as being `escapism' writing. Something you didn't have to think much about, and could lose yourself in the book. To me, much like watching a TV program or a movie.

The character Lilith was naughty, but still enjoyable as a character. She is a spoiled vampire, daddy's girl, but there is something that makes you want to know more about her. Cally Monture is also an intriguing character. She comes from a different background than Lilith and it was interesting to see the different types of vampires in this author's vision.

I wasn't fond of the overuse of brand names throughout the book. Prada glasses, Jimmy Cho Shoes, Gucci this, Dolce and Gabbana that. It was just name dropping. I realize the author was trying to set the background of the characters so you realize they are well-off. I just thought it was too much. I also didn't like the way the characters were introduced with their first and last names. It seemed forced. For example, "Lilith spotted her promised, Jules de Laval." Then in the same paragraph, "...chatting with Tanith Graves, one of her best friends." It just annoyed me. If they aren't a major character, do I really need their full names? (Oh yeah...yes, there are characters named Lilith and Tanith...I laughed!) Another thing, I don't think some of the wording used by the author was thought-out.... In one place the author uses, "He needed to see her again like a tiger needs to quench it's thirst." Hrmmmm. Like a tiger?? Really?? Similes and metaphors can be hard sometimes to use appropriately in writing, but come on!

I enjoyed not thinking while I read. As I said before, it is very much a teen book. Some guilty little pleasure was satisfied reading it. Far, far FAR from a masterpiece as I said before, I did still enjoy it. The book had some big faults, but it wasn't horrible. It was a bit cheesy, a bit predictable, and full of that name dropping business.

Overall, I had to go with a three for a rating. When I look at the rating I've given this book and then what I gave Uglies, I feel I wasn't fair to Uglies. It was written much better. However, it didn't deserve a two. I think three is going to be a wide variety of books. You have to make me pretty happy to get a 4 or 5!!

~Jenn Read more ›