Sweetblood

Rating:
Summary: excellent book about a girl in the goth/vampire subculture
Review: Goths. Vampires. Diabetics. You will find all of that and more in Pete Hautman's book Sweetblood. The book calls itself a "vampire novel," but really what it's about is a diabetic girl, Lucy, who's theory that slowly dying diabetics in the Middle Ages were the original vampires leads her to take an interest in people who call themselves vampires and the vampire/goth subculture. The book is well written, and although some teenagers may not be able to appreciate it, I certainly did.
Lucy is sixteen, and has been diabetic since she was six years old. Her theory is that before the discovery of insulin, diabetics must have been seen as demons or as possessed in some way. She takes an interest in vampires and goes to vampire websites and the Transylvania chat under the alias Sweetblood, where she talks with others who share her interest and who consider themselves vampires. However, when the story begins, around the start of the school year, her grades have been deteriorating. When she writes a paper (that was supposed to be about what she wanted to do as an adult) on her theory of diabetics being vampires and goes into great detail comparing vampire legends and the symptoms of untreated diabetes, her concerned teacher calls a meeting with the school councilor (who she has already been to see multiple times) and Lucy's parents. The result: Lucy's computer is taken away from her. Apparently her parents think it dangerous for her to be on vampire websites all the time. Bored and angry, Lucy must find other things to do.
The cute, goth new guy in school has taken an interest in Lucy. One night, when she is supposed to be grounded, Lucy meets him for coffee. While at the coffeehouse, Lucy is introduced to an older member of the goth scene who knows the guy she's with. As she hangs out at the coffeehouse more, she gains an invitation to the party of one Wayne, who she has never met before. When Wayne turns out to be Draco, a member of the Transylvania chat who has been tracking Lucy, things start to get strange.
One of the best things about this book is that it gets the facts straight. A lot of times, people go on what they assume the goth subculture is. Pete Hautman has gotten his facts straight, making references to goth bands like The Sisters of Mercy and Concrete Blonde, as well as describing the various styles of goth found at Wayne's party.
Sweetblood is well written and very hard to put down. The end of every chapter leaves you wanting more, and there is never a dull moment; even the moments dull for the main character are made up for with good descriptions. As one who was once very in to vampire chats and the goth subculture, I could fully appreciate Pete Hautman's Sweetblood.

Rating:
Summary: So Glad I Happened to Pick This Up...
Review: I could not put this book down--and I'm 30 years old!:D This is such an amazingly accurate portrayal of the everyday life of a teenaged girl. It captures Lucy's voice and mind so beautifully, I feel she is someone I've known. And each of the other characters is someone you could imagine from your own high school, not the usual sitcom caricatures. The concept is very original and utterly believable. And all of the subtle references and subplots are skillfully woven together by the end to give the whole thing a wonderful cohesion and sense of "relevance". The subtle, wry humor throughout is delightful. A beautiful portrait of a lovely young girl struggling to come to terms with her lot in life and find out what she truly values. Go. Read.:)

Rating:
Summary: So Glad I Happened to Pick This Up...
Review: I could not put this book down--and I'm 30 years old!:D This is such an amazingly accurate portrayal of the everyday life of a teenaged girl. It captures Lucy's voice and mind so beautifully, I feel she is someone I've known. And each of the other characters is someone you could imagine from your own high school, not the usual sitcom caricatures. The concept is very original and utterly believable. And all of the subtle references and subplots are skillfully woven together by the end to give the whole thing a wonderful cohesion and sense of "relevance". The subtle, wry humor throughout is delightful. A beautiful portrait of a lovely young girl struggling to come to terms with her lot in life and find out what she truly values. Go. Read.:)

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: Lucy is a bright, depressed-with-goth-leanings diabetic teenager with a theory that historical accounts of vampires are based on the physical effects of untreated, undiagnosed diabetes, who starts hanging out with vampire-wannabes. Lucy's cynical snarkiness gets a bit anooying, but it was nice to see a diabetic character who wasn't part of a problem novel about "oh no, I just found out I'm diabetic! Angst, angst, however shall I cope? Oh, guess what, I coped!" However, be prepared for the vampire stuff to play a less than pivotal part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Sweetbook
Review: Lucy Szabo can barely remember a time when she wasn't dependent on her insulin shots. Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of six, Lucy has grown up feeling like outsider. She seperates herself from her peers (deeming herself a freak) and she even visualizes herself as a vampire of sorts.

First, let me admit that I did not find Lucy to be a likeable character. She is very self-centered and acts as if she is the only person with medical problems. In fact, there is even another girl with diabetes in the book and all Lucy does is make fun of her and scoff at her chipper attitude. Lucy is negative, she contradicts herself, she believes herself to be better than everybody else.
And yet, while she isn't a likeable character, I find Lucy to be a very believable one. Hautman does an excellent job allowing the reader to see the inner workings of Lucy's mind and allowing for the reader to witness Lucy as she struggles to come to terms with her disease.

"Sweetblood" is a great insight to diabetes, with a modern twist including Goth subculture. Granted, readers expecting your cookie cutter vampire novel might be a little bit disappointed. However I find "Sweetblood" to be a Funny, eye-opening, and inspiring read that should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Sweetbook
Review: Lucy Szabo can barely remember a time when she wasn't dependent on her insulin shots. Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of six, Lucy has grown up feeling like outsider. She seperates herself from her peers (deeming herself a freak) and she even visualizes herself as a vampire of sorts.

First, let me admit that I did not find Lucy to be a likeable character. She is very self-centered and acts as if she is the only person with medical problems. In fact, there is even another girl with diabetes in the book and all Lucy does is make fun of her and scoff at her chipper attitude. Lucy is negative, she contradicts herself, she believes herself to be better than everybody else.
And yet, while she isn't a likeable character, I find Lucy to be a very believable one. Hautman does an excellent job allowing the reader to see the inner workings of Lucy's mind and allowing for the reader to witness Lucy as she struggles to come to terms with her disease.

"Sweetblood" is a great insight to diabetes, with a modern twist including Goth subculture. Granted, readers expecting your cookie cutter vampire novel might be a little bit disappointed. However I find "Sweetblood" to be a Funny, eye-opening, and inspiring read that should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Sweetblood Review
Review: The book I read is a vampire novel named SweetBlood by author Pete Hautman. I liked this book a lot. The book had a very good plot. At the end of each chapter, the author would always leave you hanging. The book is about a girl who has an interest in vampires. She is a teen trying to fit in. All the real trouble starts when she loses something. Although I can't say what it is, it is something we could all do without. She loses it because of bad grades in school. This leads to some things you wouldn't expect. Because she has diabetes she ends up having many insulin reactions. All of this builds up to a superb finale. I recommend this book to anybody except people who do not like vampires. So if you like vampire novels, this is the book for you. Four out of five stars because of some dull parts in the book such as a lot of boring detail of her going to a café or when she is walking to the mall. The book has strong of word choice, but sometimes the description is just TOO MUCH!

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time reading this book.....
Review: This is a book about a girl that is diabetic and how she lives her life. She does think she is a vampire and she talks to people that think they are vampires. In the begging of the book she is a girl that is totally into a gothic way. Then in the end she changes into a totally different girl that you would not think of her doing. The thing I like about this book is how she talks about her diabetes and how she is living in school with the diabetes. I also like how she changes into a whole different person and how her personality changes. I really hated a lot of things in this book. The most things I hated were when she was talking on a chat room on the web, and she was talking to people that thought they were vampires and she called them stupid. I also hate when she acts like a vampire.
This book is not like any books that I have read before.