It’s not easy being a teenager, especially when everything wants to eat you.
Seventeen year old Daniel ‘Jerry’ Jericho’s life is thrown into a blender made of claws and fangs when he’s dragged into the middle of the supernatural world he never knew existed.
After it’s discovered that his blood has the ability to remove the age old weaknesses from which vampires have always suffered, he becomes the most valuable human on the planet. Drinking his blood makes them immune to silver, stakes and even sunlight. But the door swings both ways and locked inside his veins might be the key to creating a permanent cure that would completely eradicate the species.
However, the supernatural world might be in for a shock because this kid isn’t going to be a vampire’s happy meal without putting up one hell of a fight. From here on out it’s hunt or be hunted and Daniel Jericho is armed, grinning and ready for some monster killing. But going up against an undead army led by a souped-up ubervamp isn’t exactly a two for one special at the Playboy mansion.
It’s going to get bloody, but that’s okay because Jerry is blood heavy.
First things first, I received a copy of Blood Heavy from the Read it and Reap program on Goodreads, so thanks to the mods and the author for giving book junkies like me their fix. Secondly, this book was awesome!!!! I don’t review a lot of YA books because…well….*looks to see who is listening*…I hate YA. Yup you heard me I hate YA, teenage angst gets on my last nerve and YA romance bores me stupid and don’t even get me started on the characters…ugh. YA teenagers never drink, smoke have inappropriate sex or have any decent flaws making them interesting, angst aside. So when I read the blurb on this book I thought hmmmm maybe this one will be different. It was, it pushed all the happy buttons I have when reading urban fantasy.
The hero, Daniel (Jerry) Jericho is an orphan living with his uncle Joe aside from that he is pretty much your typical teen guy, into muscle cars and electronics, full of raging hormones and trying to make it through school without getting kicked out. After leaving a party with some friends Jerry is attacked by vampires. He learns of a whole supernatural world he had never believed in before. The action never stopped after this, both the good and bad vampires are after Jerry for his unique blood for their own ends. Jerry has no intention of being a bystander in the
battle that follows.
I loved Jerry, he is snarky, sarcastic and loyal to the point of being suicidal. He is also surrounded by a great cast of supporting characters and enough weapons to invade a small country. He has a great group of friends from school that stick with him til the end and two beautiful vampire sisters tasked with protecting him, when they stop trying to kill each other. The vampires were what vamps are supposed to be scary, ruthless and vicious in reaching their goals, the bad ones that is. There was not sparkling to be found and the author managed to discretely throw
in a couple of Twilight digs .
The author has said that he has been influenced by the TV show Supernatural, Joss Whedon from Buffy and Angel and the movie the Avengers. I can definitely see the Joss Whedon influences. It reminded me of both Buffy and Angel by the way Jerry and his friends interacted together, both the TV shows and the book have a strong central character who relies heavily on his group of friends to help beat the bad guys. If you’re a fan of Joss Whedon and the vampire genre without the sparkles definitely give this book a go it was great. I will be grabbing book two asap!
5 out of 5 stars!
Well, you made this book sound pretty good — so I’m adding it to my tbr list.
And …. I know you said this: “YA teenagers never drink, smoke have inappropriate sex or have any decent flaws making them interesting, angst aside.” and that you don’t like YA ……
Which is perfectly fine, because there are a lot of YA books out there like this …… but there are some that aren’t. In fact, you might be surprised that there are some where teens have inappropriate sex, do drugs, and have interesting flaws. I’m a librarian who buys teen books for my library …. so maybe, if you are interested in trying a YA book again at some point, ask your friendly local librarian for a few ideas. 🙂