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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Book Review: Senior Year Bites (The Clanless #1) by J.A. Campbell

Senior Year Bites (The Clanless #1)
by J.A. Campbell

July 7th 2014 by Untold Press
Senior year is supposed to be fun: boys, dances and graduation. It’s significantly harder to enjoy it when you’re dead.

Thanks to an innocent game of Truth or Dare, I wound up sleeping in a graveyard. Probably not the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but thanks to a couple of well-placed fangs, I’m here to tell the tale.

Vampires might stalk pop culture, but they’re just myths, right? Yeah. Not so much…

Everything seems a lot more difficult when you’re a nocturnal creature of the night, especially school. I was managing, but couldn’t keep it hidden from my friends. Steph decided that we should be cool, like superheroes, and fight crime.

I’m a vampire, not a hero. Living in a sleepy New England town, crime is a little harder to come by. At least it is until a serial killer moves into the area. He’s got the authorities stumped, but then again, the cops don’t have a teenage, blood-sucking, non-hero on their team. It doesn’t take long for me to discover the world is full of monsters. I may be one of them…but will I turn out to be the hero, or the killer everyone is looking for.


The young sure do accept the bizarre and unusual a lot better than we old timers! The main character Meg, a senior in high school, was attending a birthday party and played probably the last truth or dare game of her life...well...of her human life anyway. She took a dare and had to spend the night in a graveyard. Ok, these teens also have a lot more MOXIE too! She goes to the graveyard but woke the next morning a totally different person...or "being" might be a more appropriate term.

Meg realizes what has probably happened to her...(really?!) since she found direct sunlight burns her skin, she has a sudden hunger for blood and her canines tend to be a little longer. My, she seems to be accepting this a lot better than I would! She has not shared this information with anyone and doesn't know how to keep her unusual habits from her mom and best friends Ann and Steph.

She finally comes clean to her friends but still thinks of herself as a monster...even though her friends seem to take it in stride...and is trying to find a way to use her newfound attributes for good and not evil.

Meg and her friends find themselves involved in investigating a series of murders of young women near their high school and college campus. Feeling somewhat responsible for the attacks by another "super", Meg finds courage and talents in her new state to battle the powerful predator with the help of her friends.

The story is a rather light YA paranormal with a catchy story of friendship and new romances and adaptability of youth to the unusual and bizarre. It shows how cunning and creative young people can be and still stay "young at heart."  It was a quick read and I enjoyed the story and budding romantic feelings that took me back to my youth. I think it would appeal to young paranormal readers or even "old-timers" like me. I will get the next book in the series to see what the author has in store for these young people!

I give this story 3 1/2 "peppy" sheep





Jeanie G


About the Author:
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Julie has been many things over the last few years, from college student, to bookstore clerk and an over the road trucker. She’s worked as a 911 dispatcher and in computer tech support, but through it all she’s been a writer and when she’s not out riding horses, she can usually be found sitting in front of her computer. She lives in Colorado with her three cats, her vampire-hunting dog, Kira, her Arabian mare, Triska, and her Irish Sailor. She is the author of many Vampire and Ghost-Hunting Dog stories, the young adult fantasy series, Tales of the Travelers, and the young adult urban fantasy series The Clanless. She is also the editor of Steampunk Trails, an old west steampunk fiction magazine and a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Dog Writers of America Association.

1 comment:

  1. No, this sounds really too young for me. And well, perhaps a bit simple?

    ReplyDelete