Review: Interesting Take on Vampires
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2012
had the opportunity to read Blood Heavy this past week through GoodReads R2R. My review is unbiased though. This book starts with 17 yr old orphaned Daniel finishing his junior in high school with his best friend Goose. They're typical teenage boys, until they discover that there is something mysterious is Daniel's blood. It causes vampires, to become uber-powerful.Up until he was attacked Daniel had no idea that anything like vampires, werewolves, fairies, etc existed. He is shoved into this world and will have to learn to swim on his own, well with the help of his uncle Joe and close friends. He is aided by a powerful pureblood vampire, Sophinia and those vampires who are under her, while another pureblood Selena rules over a mercenary group called Black Forest that will stop at nothing to obtain Daniel.I read a lot of fantasy books, and this is one of a handful that focuses on boys as the heroes vs girls. I think it's a great market that isn't completely saturated. The story line itself was interesting, in the fact the Daniel's blood can make vampires even more powerful, his saliva and scent is a powerful aphrodisiac, and when his blood is out of body it will explode when exposed to electricity.  That being said, I felt like the boys in this book were extremely immature. Goose is a walking bag of hormones, and Daniel takes no time to think about what repercussions his actions will cause. They seemed closer to 14 than almost 18. The other YA books I've read that feature a boy as the protagonist incorporate girls into the story as well, and that seems to provide a good offset to the lack of maturity on the boys' part.  For whatever reason, I had a difficult time connecting to the characters in this book. I'm not sure if it's because they weren't fully developed, or because the author didn't share what Daniel and his friends were really feeling. The author shared that he wanted Daniel to share some of the same characteristics that Dean from Supernatural has; however in Daniel it just came across as immaturity. Hopefully the 2nd book will show Daniel and Goose in a more mature light.I do think the mystery surrounding the woman in the white business suit that made an appearance at the end of the book will be enough to keep readers hooked. My guess is that is Daniel's mother, or relative from her side. I am curious to find out who she is. She seemed to want to protect Daniel, yet she also seems to be a monster in her own right given her actions with the vampires.  It will be interesting to find out what Daniel is; is a human hybrid or just a human that inherited some interesting blood?You can definitely see the influence of the TV show Supernatural  in the book, as well as True  Blood (even if the author didn't intend for the 2nd part).There were numerous typos in the book. Words that should have been plural missing the letter "s" as well as words that didn't belong in the sentence at all. I'm guessing Word changed "typos" into these words, instead of the proper word. It wasn't a huge deal, but enough that it was distracting.While I won't be rushing out to get the 2nd book once it comes out, hopefully it will appeal to younger boys.