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Summary
Summary
It doesn't take long for Cody Elliot to realize that his new high school is a little different. The other students are supernaturally strong, don't like the sunlight, and are always placing orders at the local blood bank. When his new friend shows him his fangs, Cody doesn't need any more clues--these kids are vampires! As Cody struggles to fit into this secretive community, he disrupts centuries of human-vampire segregation, with some serious--and some seriously funny--consequences. In sharp, humorous, and insightful prose, Douglas Rees creates a world of vampires where the real issue for humans is not the fear of being bitten, but the need to get along. From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
Douglas Rees, a young adult librarian, once spent a year in Massachusetts near a town much like New Sodom.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-When Cody Elliot's parents receive his less-than-stellar report card, they decide it's time for a change. His options are Our Lady of Perpetual Homework and Vlad Dracul Magnet School, so the choice, for Cody, is obvious. After his interview with the headmaster at Vlad and meeting Charon, the school's yellow-eyed wolf, Cody knows there is something decidedly different about this place. He also learns why he gets admitted: most of the students are vampires and they will die if they get wet. State standards require a water-polo team, so the school takes in gadge (non-vampire) students for the team. Cody makes fast friends with two classmates by defending one of them against bullies, but eventually the differences in their vampire status cause friction. By the end, however, Cody finds a simple solution to meeting the state standards, and everyone lives happily ever after. Rees has created a very familiar plot in a less-than-familiar setting. The school is well described down to the marble foyer and the librarian who can morph into a wolf to control unruly students and wayward mice. Characters are more caricatures than well-drawn individuals, but that may work to the book's advantage. Some students will relish the familiar plot line and people, and the vampire angle is sure to attract a few readers.-Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rees (Lightning Time) sinks his teeth into teenage satire with this witty and original vampire novel. The narrator, 15-year-old Cody Elliot, is rebelling against his family's move from California to New Sodom, Mass., mostly by failing at school. His parents transfer him to what they are told is a public magnet school, Vlad Dracul. With bold, almost hyperbolic humor, the author describes a lavish campus, impossibly erudite students (nearly all of whom are tall, pale and raven-haired) and ludicrously difficult assignments. As the title suggests, the school proves to be almost entirely populated by vampires (or "jenti," the term these vampires prefer), a premise Rees exploits with aplomb. Cody, along with the six other "gadje" (non-jenti) students, has been accepted only to fill out the state-required water polo team (jenti, of course, are deathly afraid of water), and no one cares about his schoolwork-he is to get automatic A's. Unlike his numbskull teammates and their sodden coach, however, Cody refuses to accept his free ride. Friendship with a bullied jenti and a tentative romantic interest in a jenti aristocrat prompt Cody to probe the boundaries of jenti/gadje relations, an effort which, in this author's hands, also translates to an exploration of classic teen tensions between wishing to belong and maintaining individuality. The resolution is marred by some oddities in narrative logic (suddenly vampires are related to selkies), but on balance the story is fluid and fun. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) Unhappy about moving from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, Cody is failing every subject at Cotton Mather High. His father decides he needs more academic rigor, but Vlad Dracul Magnet School isn't quite what either of them expects. Escorted through the palatial buildings by a huge and unnervingly cognizant timber wolf, Cody quickly learns that he need only join the school's water polo team to earn As in all subjects and, eventually, a free ride to a top college. After a surreal day, Cody discovers why: most of the students are vampires, and because water sports are part of the state curriculum and vampires, or jenti, can't go in the water (they dissolve), the school needs a few nonvampires, or gadje, to keep the vampire school afloat. There's nothing eerie or mysterious about these vampires: the dangers Cody faces are the same as that for any kid--fitting in at a new school, getting beat up by bullies, taking a chance on friendship and romance. The biggest risk Cody takes is deciding to give up the free As and earn his own way, and, despite initial resistance from all parties, matters are resolved rather easily. In offering his friendship to two jenti students, Cody breaks through the distrust on both sides, changing the centuries-old status quo of separation between jenti and gadje and even getting the girl--a vampire princess, no less. Any concerns about the vampires' primary food source (sharing a pint with a friend has new meaning here) remain unexplored; they just don't fit into this easygoing story about getting along. A light, engaging parable with a reader-pleasing happy ending. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Cody Elliot's plan to get his parents to return to California (Objective #1: fail all subjects in his new Massachusetts public high school) backfires when his not-so-doting dad transfers him to Vlad Dracula Magnet School. His new school is populated by persons of Romanian descent known among themselves as the Jenti--and guess who their honored ancestor was. Cody's fresh mouth keeps him in trouble in his new school, while his two Jenti friends, Justin and Ileana, labor to incorporate him into the school culture. Rees presents amusing twists on the fantasy tropes about vampires, with funny and convincing details about their daily lives and living preferences. Although predictable, the ending will not bother teen readers one bit. The humor, engaging characters and need to find out what Cody is up to will carry them through a fast, satisfying read. Could Vlad Dracula still rule? Readers will love to find out. (Fiction. 12-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-9. There's barely a false note in this rollicking tale of horror, humor, and light romance that will appeal to both girls and boys. Transplanted from California to an archetypal New England town, ninth-grader Cody Elliot flunks out of the local public school; but he's accepted at Vlad Dracul Magnet School, where most of the students are tall, pale, and prone to Edwardian mannerisms. The school timber wolf accompanies Cody to his first day of classes, and it doesn't take the new kid long to figure out that the school is populated by--and organized to continue the traditional social life of--vampires. Rees keeps things moving and delightfully off-balance as Cody rescues a classmate from bullies, falls in love with a vampire princess, and designs a way to save the school. The parody of New England society adds yet another level of hilarity, but at the center are Cody and his toothsome friends, inspired and inspirational teens discovering the world as it is and making it renew for themselves. --Francisca Goldsmith Copyright 2003 Booklist