Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley

Mina Hamilton's parents are vampires, but Mina isn't, born just a few months after her Dad was turned, and her mother turned to join him shortly after her birth. But there are rules for Vampires, and one of the biggest is "Don't let normal humans know what you are". And since her parents, who had flown under the radar of the Northwest Vampire Council for the longest time, were recently discovered to be harboring Mina, the Council has given Mina a month to make a decision: either become a vampire and stay with her family, or remain human and be forced to forget them.

Mina is made to go to a class that gives lessons and advice on being a vampire, but allows students to make a choice on whether to be or not to be. While she's at the class, she meets two boys, both wannabe vamps, the moody poet-type Aubrey, and the boy-next-door George. She is immediately taken to by Aubrey, which pisses off one of the vamp class girls, a goth-girl named Raven, who wants Aubrey for herself. But Aubrey is interested in Mina, and she can't help but return the interest.

Mina is also interested in one of her classmates, a boy named Nathan Able, who she thinks is OMGHot! So when they are finally assigned a project together in English class, on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, they finally seem to hit it off, and before she knows it, Mina and her best friend Serena are hanging with the cool kids and Nathan, and their nemesis, pain-in-the-side Cheerleader Bethany, but Nathan easily puts her in her place, to both girls delight.

But the choice hangs over Mina's head, and her sponsor, her uncle Morty (the one who turned her Dad in the first place) isn't all that much of a help. So as Mina juggles boys, her best friend, and schoolwork, she also has to juggle her decision on whether to be a vampire, or not, and the hot vampire wannabe boys she's hanging with at her classes. But who and what should she choose? Can she make the decision for the right reasons, and does she even know what the right reasons are for her? Will she be forced to part from her Mom and Dad, or from her best friend Serena and her crush Nathan? Who will she end up choosing?

I found this book entertaining, and vampires are certainly presented in a somewhat new way in this book. Apparently vampirism comes with a form of albinism attatched, which is why you suddenly get so pale, and all vampires have blue or green eyes, mainly because of the same reason. Sunlight doesn't kill them, but they get horrific sunburns, and their light eyes are supersensitive to light, so they can never go to the beach. They don't need to eat, but can anyway... the list just goes on, each delivered at the top of the chapter headings. (My favorite was: Myth- Stakes through the heart kill vampires. Truth- Duh! They'd kill anyone!)

Teen readers will love this book because it definitely reflects being a teen, and then asks readers what they would do in Mina's place. What choice would they make? Mina's friend Serena at first asserts that she would love to be a vampire, but later on recants that choice, after she falls in love and realizes she would have to leave the boy she'd fallen for- or convert him. The book is definitely in the fantasy category, but the fantasy is only in the conceit that vampires exist. Everything else is pretty much realistic.

I liked this book a lot. It's not a deep, searching book, but it's lighthearted and fun despite the heroine's dislike of what being a vampire entails (drinking blood, mostly). Mina has a fun sense of self-deprecating humor, and the novel is definitely having fun even with all the serious topics that get discussed. Recommended.