Review: Entertaining story in the Buffy vein
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2011
Daniel "Jerry" Jericho is being raised by his uncle Joe - his mother died in childbirth and his father died when he was 9.  He's a normal, 17-year-old kid, full of testosterone, fascinated by cars and circuits, and trying to do as little as possible to get through school.  Everything changes when he and his friends are attacked by vampires, and he discovers that not only are vampires real, but that they are all after him because his blood has special properties - in the short term, it increases their strength exponentially and makes them practically invincible.  There are some vampires who have chosen to not drink from humans and they hope that they can figure out how to use Jerry's blood to heal themselves - turn themselves human again.  Most vampires, however, just want his blood for the power.Overall I liked the story.  There were definitely faults, not the least of which was a definite need for additional editing.  While all the characters were well described and given defining characteristics that should have made them quite unique, they were all written in such a way that they sounded and acted pretty much the same.  It's unfortunate that Shortt didn't take the characteristics that were given to each character and refine it further so that they each had their own, individual "voice."  Also there were a few plot holes - the biggest one was saying that a trip from St. Cloud, MN to Sioux Falls, SD could be done in two hours - it would take more like 4  hours.  Shortt is from UK and, although it was obvious there were attempts to make the story sound properly American, since it was set in Minnesota, many Britishism still slipped in - not just in spelling, but also grammatical structure.  Overall, the story would have been greatly improved with the help of an American editor to catch these, as well as the many usage and grammatical mistakes that were rife in the book.That said, the story itself is fast-paced and was definitely engaging.  If you can overlook the faults, it is an enjoyable story and one I could recommend to fans of Buffy and the like.