Vampire Island by Adele Griffin

This is the first book in a series. I read the second, "The Knaveheart's Curse" first, and while I concluded I wouldn't really be following the series, I did end up reading this one, which I had put on hold at the library before I'd read the second one. And I'm kind of glad I did.

The Livingstone kids aren't your normal sorts, they are actually vampire/fruitbat hybrids from the old world. Which means that they do need blood- occasionally. But mostly they live on fruit. Because of the dangers inherent in the old world, where hybrids aren't wanted, they moved to America, and the New World, where they have a chance to shed their immortality and live normal lives.

Lexie is the oldest, and she has a crush on a human boy named Dylan, and she hopes he will like her, too. But Lexie's long hands, super-speed and double-jointed legs, not to mention her quoting of downer poetry, make her an object of derision to most of her classmates, including Mina Pringle, who is sure that Lexie is not quite human and ultra-strange.

Maddy is the middle child, the one with the most vampire in her makeup. She's strong and scary, and doesn't care who knows it. When a family named Von Krik moves in across the street, Maddy is convinced that they are old-world vampires and thus are a threat to the well-being and existence of her family. With her superior hunting skills that are a legacy from 400 years of providing for her family, she decides to put down the Von Kriks and make the city and street safe for her and her own.

Hudson is the youngest, and he wants to make the world a better place. In the old world, humans and vampires live in harmony with nature, and when he sees how people in the new pollute without thinking, he wants to do something about it. He's also the one member of his family who can still transform into a bat. So when other hybrids come forward to ask him to be a Protector, he is so there! But will becoming a Protector aliennate him from the rest of the kids in his class?

I found this first volume actually kind of cute and adorable. I liked the focus on the three siblings rather than just Maddy and enjoyed their struggles to seem normal. Even though the book was split up into what was essentially three different stories that ran concurrently, I enjoyed the way the siblings helped each other and showed up in each other's stories.

My favorite was Lexie's story, and because it is with her inadvertant help that Maddy is able to overcome the Von Kriks. Hudson's story is also strong, and by the end of the book, he seems to have redeemed himself to his classmates. But what I really missed from this book is the background. How can vampires become mortal and age? Is it only hybids, or can all vampires simply choose to give up the vampire life?

I suspect that this information will be doled out to us over the course of the series. We do learn some background here- how the Livingstone family first became vampires, but how did they become hybrids? Were they already part fruit bat? The story implies that they were, but doesn't really spell it out, and I would have appreciated knowing for sure.

I liked this book. We'll definitely see some of the minor characters again, like Pete the Werewolf Kid, because he shows up in the second volume, and probably will in the third, if and when there is one. I liked this first volume much better than the second, and it will make me look up the third, which I hope will focus on all the siblings once again- Maddy isn't strong enough to carry the series on her own, and I like the interplay between the siblings. Pick up this one, definitely.