Red Angel Vol. 1 (v. 1)
Grade 10 Up—Mika and her brother Eru are two of the most beautiful people that Nana has ever seen. But Nana learns, too late, that Mika's interest in her is fueled by more than just friendship. Eru is actually another form of Mika, and Mika is a vampire who befriends her victims before feeding on them. Luckily for Nana, Mika never finishes her meals. In subsequent chapters, Mika and/or Eru interact with different humans, vampires, and other supernatural creatures, some of whom do not follow proper hunter's etiquette and leave many corpses in their wake. The illustrations are powerful, especially when the vampires feed and time seems frozen in a windswept moment.Red Angelintroduces new variations of old rules regarding vampires. Yes, they feed on blood and they can be killed by supernatural means, but these creatures go out in daylight, wear crosses, and have wings that are sometimes visible to others. The ending redefines vampires as we know them, but this explanation of their "true" nature raises more questions than it answers and may also offend Christian readers.—Andrea Lipinski, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.