Review: Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Team Human
Author: Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publishing Date: July 3rd 2012
Pages: 352
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook

Goodreads Summary:
Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn't mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It's up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity!

On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure that is equal parts hilarious and touching.

Acclaimed authors Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan team up to create a witty and poignant story of cool vampires, warm friendships, and the changes that test the bonds of love.

Review:

This was a very fun story. It is not your normal vampire/human love story. I was a little reluctant when I started, fear of the book making fun of my paranormal romances (because of the title). I was pleasantly surprised on how much I enjoyed the book.

The story is from the POV of Mel, a very anti-vampire teenager who lives in a town full of vampires. In fact her town is known for the vampires and there are rules that they vampires must abide by. There are blood banks and psychologist and neighborhoods just for the vampires. Mel has two best friends: Cathy who is intrigued with vampires and Anna who despises vampires. Everything is fine Mel’s life until a vampire, Frances, enrolls in their school and Cathy falls head over heels in love. Mel is completely against them dating and decides to intervene. During the process, Mel meets Frances’ family which consists of a human named Kit who wants to be a vampire. Mel soon learns that Cathy has agreed to turn for Frances and that is when Mel loses it. Mel must either stop Cathy or come to terms with the idea of a vamp as a best friend… oh and to top it off, Mel falls for the vamp wannabe.

The book is full of so much humor; I was giggling, laughing, and snorting my way through the book. It’s not all laughs though, there are some serious, well as serious as you can get, issues in the book. It was a very quick and light read. I found it nice to have the opposing side to the paranormal romance for once. The vampires wasn’t all dreamy as usual, he wasn’t yuck or anything either. The story was not from the POV of the girl who was melting for the vampire, and the main character was a nice change of pace with her anti vampire attitude.

Speaking of characters, there was a nice slew of them in this story. The main character Mel was pretty cool for the most part. She had her issues, she thought she knew best for everyone but she did what did with the best intentions in mind. She is very loyal to her friends and would do whatever she had to for their well being. She did have some problems with seeing outside her own little glass box but she learned in the end. I really liked Kit, he was my favorite. A very sweet boy who was raised by vampires, interesting huh? He had a good outlook on most things given the life he has had. He was open to listening and learning and was really quite funny, totally clueless to the way humans really lived. Frances was kind of in the background and blended in a bit. Anna was a very sweet girl that has been dealt a pretty crappy hand and Cathy was a little annoying but eventually won me over in the end.

In the end I was quite pleased with the book and found it was pretty complete with humor, mystery, and a little bit of growing up.

Rating:

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