Bite Me
Bite Meby Parker BlueBell Bridge BooksDue to the miserable reading rut I was suffering through in the Fall I never did read this review copy of Bite Me that the great folks at Bell Bridge Books sent me and I apologize for that. It wasn't that the story didn't look interesting to me, it was only that I just could not for the life of me get into anything I tried to read. For the longest time. It was just horrible!But... before I get into the story itself, which I actually enjoyed, I have to mention my problems with this book. 1) As soon as I saw the cover and title a little warning went off in the back of my mind. I had seen this before. At least something similar. So I searched around Amazon to see if my suspicions were valid. And they were. There is an unofficial guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer out there with the same title and a very similar - if not exact - font. This of course worried me and brings me to point 2) I am generally nervous about teen vampire hunter books. Many of them come off as bad Buffy fan-fic and although I think the references in the book were intentionally there as a sort of "hey, I know you're going to compare me to Buffy fan-fic so take this!" it still was a little too Buffy-ish for me. Complete with the reference of The Slayer with capital TS and the choice of the name Buffy in a panic when asked her name.That all being said, this was a fun book to read. I liked the character of Val (if not the name) and I adored Fang the tiny terrier crossed with Hellhound sidekick. Fang was hilarious. Hilarious! And I so want a terrier-slash-hellhound for my very own now. I thought Val's sister was a moron and wanted to lock her in a basement and forget about her, her parents were selfish bastards who filled me with rage (ok, and I might have been in tears by the end of the first chapter when on Val's 18th birthday they choose the other daughter over her and kick her out of the house..) The cops, well, that was just odd, but I guess I would have liked them a little more flushed out. I found the character of Officer Sullivan rather flat.Val is half demon and therefore can sense vampires and has the added advantage of being able to match them in combat, so she does. If only to keep her inner demon, Lola, happy. After being told she's a bad influence on her 16 year old half-sister due to her inner demon, Val's mother and step-father wish her happy birthday by kicking her out of the house. Friendly. On the same day Val discovers there is a special police unit out there focused on hunting the same creatures she's been hunting and so she appeals to them for a job (so she can find a place to live) and offers to teach them what she knows of vampires. She's befriended by a small terrier who can speak to her through a mindlink and learns he's just like her - part demon. Only Fang is part Hellhound, though you wouldn't know it by his tiny terrier stature.Aforementioned issues aside, I was amused by the sarcastic humour through out the story and the plot was actually interesting which eases some of my fan-fic fears. I am no stranger to fan-fic, I have enjoyed a few stories in both the Buffy and Due South fandoms, so I don't automatically dismiss an author or story just because they may have started in that venue. However, what I hate is obvious idea theft, when you know someone is using the Buffyverse as their model and they have just changed the names to protect the innocent (or for copyright violation). I am happy to say that THIS book does NOT do that. It's original enough that my earlier fears were quelled.Demon Underground