Customer Reviews

Vamps

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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

I decided to read this book because I was working at Borders at the time and she was on a book tour and came to our store. I was excited to meet the authors coming, along with Nancy Collins were Claudia Gray (Evernight) and Ellen Schreiber (Vampire Kisses). I had recently read Twilight and was in the Vampire craze along with most of the population. This story was a comparison to Gossip girl except with vampires. I found myself rolling my eyes as I read. I was not impressed with this book. This author was doing what many began doing, writing books about vampires because of the new craze. I feel that she did not do this very successfully. After meeting the author I was even less impressed. The author was very rude and not at all grateful for the fans that were there. The other two authors were enthusiastic to talk with their fans and very kind and respectful. Their fans are what got them there. I had a very nice conversation with Claudia Gray. The author's attitude killed any chance of me picking up future books of hers. If I meet an author and they are not nice I'm really unlikely to read their books. The author's attitude and the lack of originality of her book made it not worth reading.

[...]

If you read this book, it will be a mistake! It's about popular, rich vampires spending their time being popular and rich. Oh, and heartless and sexually active before they even finish vampire high school.

This book is full of things that insult both good/well-written teenagers and good/well-written vampires. The main character, Lilith, is the most SHALLOW B!TCH I have ever seen in a book, and I'm not exaggerating, the author shoves this fact in your face. Atop her sneaking away to drink underage (and I don't mean just blood), taking her friends to her house so they can lay on the floor and start to have sex, Lilith's super-secret hobby is to sneak into a bathroom and use a compact mirror to look at herself before she gets old enough for her reflection not to appear in mirrors anymore. This is forbidden in vampire society, but Lilith just can't help but break the rules to see her own vivacious, unrivaled beauty~! REALLY?

The only time when we are supposed to be sympathetic for her is right after Lilith and her buddies go "slumming" (searching dark, dirty neighborhoods for potential men to seduce/suck blood from). One of Lilith's good friends dies in this event and her dad found out and is rightfully angry. The narrator informs us that Lilith is "just a girl who's afraid of daddy." Oh. That makes me like you.

Right after that, Lilith hopes to God that her dad isn't going to cancel her credit cards.

We are saved by the half-vampire Cally, a much better and independent person, who is forced to attend Lilith's school and becomes said soulless blonde's target of Gossip Girl-styled insults and later on, said blonde's MURDER attempt. You will identify and sympathize with Cally much more than Lilith, and by all rights SHE ought to be the main character.

But no matter who the main character is, the story boils down to "Who can climb to the top of the social vampire ladder the fastest", with many descriptions of who is wearing what designer clothes, what color, how sexy it is, and how much it cost.

I am sorry I read this book.

This was a totally fun read. It was quick and action packed. It really seemed as though I spent hardly any time reading it. I loved the world that Collins developed and the only draw back I had at all was that there were only three books out in this series. Have done quite a bit of checking and only saw one fan site that said there might be a book 4. The girls in the Academy reminded me a lot of the 90210 group. A lot of petty girl stuff that I usually don't like but really worked in this book.

Vamps, the first book in a new young adult series, introduces readers to a whole new take on the vampire mythos. A world where status and bloodlines are everything and to be born on the wrong side of them is far from pleasant. Where else could such a tale be set than New York? A city known for its own clashing social classes, fashion, fame and fortune.

Daughter of the vampire elite's Victor Todd, Lilith has been the reigning royalty at Bathory Academy. The prestigious all-girls school trains young women from Old Blood families how to shapeshift, practice scrivenery and other important vampire skills. But when school is out Lilith and friends prowl the night shopping at the chicest designer boutiques, slithering along the dance floor of their favorite night club and slumming amongst the dregs of human society in search of amusement.

When one of these slumming incidents leads Lilith and her friends into a pack of Van Helsings (vampire slayers) it is a New Blood she blames for the tragic results. Meanwhile, Cally Monture, a New Blood gifted with a rare vampire ability, has been quite content to live life just as she has. But when the mysterious father she has never met demands she begin attending Bathory all heck breaks loose. Lilith wants Cally dead and for more than one reason!

Vamps is definitely not a book without its flaws. I'm a notorious label-dropping hater. Anyone looking for a book to give a teen or tween this book should be aware that the 'teens' in this series do partake in alcohol, drugs and there are some subtle sexually suggestive references. But if you can get past those issues there is something a bit clandestine and charming about it. Conceptually, the vampire mythos is a little confusing in areas but opens up a world of possibilities. It's not often you see vampires who can shapeshift into a bat-like flying form!

This first installment by itself ends a little too abruptly for my tastes but did really tantalize my guilty-pleasures palate to read more. Definitely a fluffier bit of YA urban fantasy that isn't meant to be too emotionally deep or offer any moral message. It's just plain spoiled rich-girl fun set in the very popular realm of vampires. If you're looking for a nice (if a cheesy) change of pace from all the gloom-and-doom Romeo and Juliet-esque vampire novels give Vamps a try.

VAMPS
NANCY A. COLLINS
Paranormal YA

Rating: 4 Enchantments

New Bloods, Old Bloods and Van Helsings populate this tale of privileged vampires in New York City. Lilith Todd is an Old Blood and reigns supreme amongst the privileged sect at Bathory Academy. When one night things go terribly wrong and one of her closest friends is killed by a Van Helsing, Lilith vows revenge on the vamp that she believes caused the situation to go badly in the first place.

Cally Monture is a new blood, and thanks to the legacy of her father is forced to start at the Bathory Academy, a move that instantly makes her the outcast. Its not bad enough being new--not to mention a muchly despised New Blood--but being the reason Lilith lost her best friend instantly puts a target on her back as Lilith makes no bones about letting her know she wants revenge.

I liked Cally a little more than Lilith in this one. Cally, being a New Blood is having tons of problems fitting in to the Bathory Academy, a private school specifically for Old Bloods. But that's not the only thing; she has to quickly catch up on what she doesn't know--transformation, pretty much everything. And its not only the students that aren't exactly welcoming, some of the teachers are more than happy to let her know she isn't wanted at her new digs. But we soon find out Cally may not be all that she seems, a surprise that has me wondering where the series goes from here.

VAMPS is a fun paranormal read. A lot of vampire myths are twisted in this one, and I especially liked how they were explained away. I really liked Lilith's secret addiction to her compact mirror so she can look at her reflection while she still has one. The appearance of the Van Helsings and Peter's inexplicable attraction to Cally, which becomes clearer at a particular point in the book. I liked watching the unusual relationship between Peter and Cally play out. I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment of the series.


Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
October 2008

Its a mix of gossip girls meets vampires. Filled with fashion, friendship, dating, cliques, populars, and lastly vampires. It's a must-read!