The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer

Vladimir Tod is the most picked on kid at school. Everyone else seems to hate him, pick on him, and push him around. The one saving grace in his life is the girl he has a major crush on: Meredith. But even she seems to like his best friend, Henry, better than him. Oh, and did I mention Vladimir is a vampire?

Unlike most vampires, Vlad is also half-human, and has spent the last few years of his life living with Nelly, a nurse who was a friend to both of his parents. His parents died in a fire, leaving Vladimir alone, and now he must live alone with Nelly, with no one knowing his true race except for Nelly and his friend, Henry, who only knows because Vlad once bit him and drank a small amount of his blood. He survives with regular infusions of blood from the hospital Nelly works in, usually out of date blood that is going to be destroyed anyway, and lots and lots of sunblock.

Now, Mr. Craig, Vlad's English teacher, is missing, and the man who takes over for him is named Mr. Otis. Vlad has a strange feeling about Mr. Otis, and when he sees the Sub over at Mr. Craig's house, he investigates, finding only a strange sigil on the porch under the welcome mat in front of the house. But something looks familliar about the sigil, and Vlad soon realizes that it is very close to the Sigil marked on his father's stuff. Soon, he's convinced that Mr. Otis is behind the attacks on people around Vlad's home town of Bathory.

But Mr. Otis turns out to be Vlad's uncle on his father's side, and he's there to take Vlad to the council, who wishes to see Vlad for themselves. Despite the presence of another operative who wants to kill Vlad outright, Vlad will have to learn more about Vampires and Vampire society if he wants to get any older, and he has to learn what a Pravus is, and why he might be one. But since the council also wants to kill him, can Vlad trust his uncle, or will his Uncle betray him to the council for a price?

I did like this book, which mingles the outsider-y feeling of being the picked on kid in school with being a different kind of outsider, a vampire. Vlad is just a normal 14-year old, hanging with his friend, getting interested in girls, and falling in love for the first time. Unfortunately for him, the girl he likes is interested only in his best friend, and the vampire part of him isn't all that well under control.

Vlad knows his father was born in a place called Elysia, but during the novel, he comes to realize that Elysia is not a fixed place, but what vampires call their society. Elysia also exists in Bathory, and Vlad is lucky that he hasn't come to the attention of the council before this, for his father was second in command on the Council, but gave it all up for life with Vlad's human mother. And that, to the council, was reason enough to kill them. But nobody seems to know what really happened to Vlad's mother and father, not even Vlad's uncle or the head of the council.

Which means, of course, that it will be up to Vlad to find out what happened. And to find out what a Pravus is. I confess to being curious about that myself. I wonder if it is anything akin to being a Dhampir, a half-vampire, but maybe not, since Vlad seems to be more vampire than human.

Yes, I did like this book, and I want to see more. I liked the little touches, like the town Vlad lives in being named Bathory, since Erzbet, the Countess of Bathory, was supposed to also be a vampire, with the exception that she bathed in the blood of young maidens to keep herself looking young rather than drinking blood. These little touches made me smile in the story and look forward to reading more.