Team Human (Review)

Team Human | Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier

YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, FUN!

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★☆☆

Mel and Cathy and Anna have passed vampires on the street, and sat near them in cinemas, but they don’t know any. Vampires stick to their own kind, and Mel and her friends hang out with other humans—until a vampire boy in a bizarre sun-proof suit shows up at school and captures Cathy’s heart.
Mel is horrified. Can she convince Cathy that life with a vampire is no life at all? Should she? And then all her assumptions about vampires are turned on their head when she meets Kit, a boy who makes her laugh—a boy with a very unusual family history.
Will Mel’s staunch anti-vampire stance jeopardise her closest friendships? And where does Kit fit in? In the end, who will choose... Team Human?

REVIEW

This book is fun, super fun! Seriously, read it. It's such an enjoyable book.

I laughed, I didn't cry (nope, not even once!), and I was totally on Team Human as opposed to Team Vampire. And even though the book is written from the perspective of a girl completely anti-vampire, it presents the pros and cons of both remaining human and transitioning, and it makes you question your own stance on the whole thing. But don't think this is a serious, angsty novel. Oh no! It's humorous, intelligent, and (I use it again) fun.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Team Human, partly because I've only seen co-written books done well once before, and partly because vampires have been way overdone, but this put a cool twist on the whole vampire thing and told it from a different angle.

But do you know what I love about this book? The friendships. Team Human is very much about the complex relationships between friends and how the decision of one friend can affect another. I could literally jump for joy because A VAMPIRE BOOK NOT ABOUT CRAPPY ROMANCE! Okay, it's totally about crappy romance as well but that's beside the point. It's about more than 'Oh, swoon! Attractive dead guy wants to court me!' It's about how important it is to research before jumping into major decisions, it's about supporting your friends even if you disagree with their desires, it's about letting your friends fly the nest even if they are your babies.

I did not expect to find a pretty morally prolific tale between the pages of a vampire romance parody. I did not expect lessons to be learnt. I did not expect this book to be as seriously good as it was. (I'm a vampire cynic, bite me.)

To sum up: A vampire story that I haven't read a thousand times before in other books? Huh. I'm in shock.

[Oh and isn't the Francis on the cover just creepy as hell??]