Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods, Book 1) (Paperback)

by Melissa De La Cruz (Author)
Key Phrases: sacred language, human familiars, physical shell, The Committee, Blue Bloods, Jack Force (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–De la Cruz has revamped traditional vampire lore in this story featuring a group of attractive, privileged Manhattan teens who attend a prestigious private school. Schuyler Van Alen, 15, the last of the line in a distinguished family, is being raised by her distant and forbidding grandmother. Schuyler, her friend Oliver, and their new friend Dylan are treated like outsiders by the clique of popular, athletic, and beautiful teens made up of Mimi Force, her twin brother, and her best friend. What they have in common is the fact that they are all Blue Bloods, or vampires. They don't realize that they aren't normal until they reach age 15. Then the symptoms manifest themselves and they begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares about events in history, and get prominent blue veins in their arms. Their immortality and way of life are threatened after Blue Blood teens start getting murdered by a splinter group called the Silver Bloods. This novel constantly name-drops and is full of product placements, drinking, drugs, nonexplicit sex, and superficial characterizations, but the intriguing plot will keep teens reading. De la Cruz's explanation for the disappearance of the Colony of Roanoke is unique and the idea that models don't gain weight because they are Blue Bloods rather than anorexic is unusual.–Sharon Rawlins, NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped, Trenton
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. Like the power brokers that are their parents and ancestors, members of the popular clique at New York's Duchesne School are Blue Bloods, continually reincarnated vampires endowed with preternatural beauty, charisma, and strength. The plot revolves around several teens, unaware of their heritage, who begin to manifest their true natures during a terrifying spate of vampire-to-vampire violence. At book's end, nonconformist Schuyler has emerged as heroine, having discovered a rift in Blue Blood history that lays the groundwork for forthcoming books. Grafting the chick-lit sensibility of her Au Pairs books onto horror themes, de la Cruz introduces a conception of vampires far different from traditional stake-fleeing demons, coupling sly humor ("What, the Committee was just a front for a bunch of blood-sucking B-movie monsters?") with the gauzier trappings of being fanged and fabulous--as well as abundant references to the taboo-laden "taking" of human familiars, a procedure with overtly sexual overtones. Although the novel isn't sure quite what it wants to be (satire? beach read? gothic saga?), many teens will savor the thrilling sense of being initiated into an exclusive secret society, and will doubtless want to drink deeply from the vampire-themed offerings suggested in the adjacent "Read-alikes" column. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142310126X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423101260
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,025 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but more about high-end society and high school drama than vampires, June 24, 2006

By	B. Bailey "serious book lover" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I picked up this book suspecting to be an unconventional, interesting vampire tale. I am a fan of vampire lore, or good ones, at least, so I had to pick this up at my friendly local library. Was I surprised - or perhaps not, coming from the author of 'Au Pairs'- that this book had very little to do with vampires. The first 100 or so pages had absolutely no vampire mentions, and hardly any insinuations that vampires would come up later. Even after that the whole 'Guess what, I'm a vampire, and nearly everyone around you is too...oh yeah, and blood is indeed a necessity' thing is merely a side plot. Mainly, this book concerns Schuyler, an outcast of sorts, dealing with the Queen Bee, Mimi Force, and her gorgeous twin brother, and other high school dramas such as that. It takes a look at the high end of society, where teens learn to drip money without showing it off. Schuyler later learns that she is a 'blue blood', or a very special vampire who is descended from a very old line. You do not learn of this until you're 15, and then signs of it come to your attention, like visible veins and a raw meat craving. Those who are blue bloods seem to be always rich. This exclusive group seems to be HIGHLY metaphorical to the upper-class. She is told that she is immortal, yet blue bloods seem to be dying very rapidly...
Quite frankly, if the whole vampire thing got chucked out, a good percentage would still be a solid story. I was a bit disappointed at first, due to the lack of vampirism, but it was still a good read. Do not read this if you're looking for an Anne Rice twist for teens, or something to that effect. If you are a fan of Ms. de la Cruz's previous novels, i.e, the Au Pairs, and other chick lit, you will find this book a very good one.

49 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent!!!, May 3, 2006

By	kittycat "KC" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods, Book 1) (Hardcover)

This is one of the best teenage vampire books out there, a fantastic read for teens and adults alike. Schuyler Van Alen lives alone with her grandma, and has only two friends: Oliver and Dylan. However, she begins experiencing strange things, like the intricate, raised pattern of blue veins on her arms. When she is invited to join the New York Blood Bank Committee, the most prestigous charity group in the city, she is reluctant. She attends the first meeting at her grandmother's insistence, where she is informed that she, as well as all the other Committee members, is a Blue Blood, an ancient breed of vampires. She is also informed that she is immortal and cannot be killed. If that's true, why are there three vampire teens who have recently been found dead? Schuyler begins a race against time to find out what could be killing vampires, as well as some shocking facts about her heritage and that of her friends, fellow vampires, and family. Will Schuyler find out what is happening...or will she be killed herself? Blue Bloods is an excellent book, the wonderful descriptions and storyline totally suck you in. I recommend this book for anyone, and can't wait for the sequels!

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts from a bookworm in Tacoma, September 10, 2007

By	E. Burt "Lady Miriam" (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm in no way qualified to define what a "good book" is. No one can claim that right. Everyone will have to decide for themselves whether De La Cruz's work is their style. All I know is the feeling I got from reading "Blue Bloods". It was not something I expected, and I can only describe it as isolation. I am a fairly average working class young woman. I've always liked books where there is at least one character who faces, even in a fantasy context, the same kinds of problems that I occasionally do (money troubles, cruel superiors etc.). I've never perceived the extremely rich as having real problems. There is always money to cushion the blow, so that even if (for example) their child gets a horrible cancer the child will still be exponentially more likely to survive than the child on my economic level who gets the same illness, simply because the rich child will have parents who can afford the endless medical treatment and will never have to deal with insurance issues.

First of all, De La Cruz has created a race of vampires who are continuously reincarnated (rather like Tolkien's Elves), and who were originally fallen angels. Not only are her vampires not "made" by other vampires, but they were never human to begin with! That alone makes me feel a bit put off. Where's the fun in a vampire story if you can't imagine the risk of becoming a part of this vampire community yourself?

The second problem lies in the fact that all of her vampires come from Old Money American pedigrees (one of them is even revealed to be Miles Standish and the Archangel Michael all rolled up into one neat package). They are not merely "rich", they are "obscenely rich". As a working class girl, I will never be even remotely part of this world. The habits of obscenely rich people are so alien to me that I find myself unable to relate to them. In fact, when you have a heroine in a story who is in a similar life situation to myself, the people that are like De La Cruz's vampires are usually her antagonists! Now, I know that De La Cruz is a fashion expert and has written for many fashion mags. This seems to be why she goes out of her way to mention so much detailed fashion and pop-culture information. I've sometimes noticed this from writers who have successful non-writing careers. Robin Cook sometimes does the same thing with medical facts. I find this excessive pop-culture trivia distracting. I will never be able to afford these brand name clothes and so I don't know much about them and see no reason to find out. I don't see why De La Cruz needs to say that the character is wearing jeans by this designer and bought them at this specific boutique on this specific street in Manhattan. All she needs to say is the character is wearing expensive designer jeans and I'll get the picture. I have to admit, it sometimes sounds like she's showing off her knowledge as opposed to furthering the plot.

It's possible this has something to do with the difference between "vampire stories" and the "chick-lit" stories that De La Cruz is chiefly known for (ex. her Au Pair series). People expect different things from different genres. I rarely read chick-lit. I read "Blue Bloods" because it's a vampire story. I expected the kind of atmosphere that is generally invoked in a vampire story. Instead, I got the atmosphere of a chick-lit novel. It felt very odd. I'm now halfway convinced that the two should not be mixed, except in a comedic context. De La Cruz writes this book as if she's unaware that she's straying into a completely different genre, and there are going to be people (i.e fans of vampire stories) reading her novel that are going to expect completely different things than what she's used to (i.e fans of chick-lit). It's very tricky for a writer to successfully cross genres and I don't think that she did it very well.

This is, I am more than willing to admit, a personal view and should in no way deter anyone from at least trying this writer out. I believe every writer should be experienced first hand before someone makes a judgment. And De La Cruz is a fairly good story teller. It's a credit to her skill that I actually wanted to find out how the story ended, otherwise I probably would've just abandoned the book in the middle. But my desire to find out the ending was strained by the time I got to the last chapters. I just wish that she had made her characters and her fictional world more accessable to the majority of the population. It really is a shame that I couldn't get over my feelings of being shut out and enjoy the story more.