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thebookaddict's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
🇳🇱: Dit boek was niet helemaal wat ik ervan verwacht had, maar het was leuk om te lezen. De focus ligt veel bij de queer romance en veel minder bij het verhaal eromheen, ik had het juist andersom verwacht. Ik las in de reviews dat het boek homofobisch was en soms zelfs een beetje racistisch. Ik keek hier anders naar. Ik vond het juist wel passen bij het boek, omdat we het hebben over 100 jaar oude (witte) vampiers die nog moeten "wennen" aan het idee dat het meer wordt uitgesproken als je queer bent en dat mensen met een andere huidskleur nu ook naar school gaan. Deze dingen kwamen sterk naar voren in het boek en dit kan dus ook kwetsend overkomen (lees zeker even de trigger warnings als je hier niet tegen kan). Ik vond het boek goed geschreven en je leest er vlot doorheen. Ik had alleen iets meer verhaallijn willen zien met betrekking tot de ziekte en het "medicijn" dit voelde nu juist meer als een zijlijn in het verhaal. Ook had ik meer willen lezen over de reünisten. Het concept van vampieren en een ziekte waar ze door sterven vond ik heel origineel bedacht.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Cursing, Abandonment, Vomit, Death, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death
czoltak's review
DNF at 25%
This one’s on me, I thought this book was going to be something different 🤷‍♀️
This one’s on me, I thought this book was going to be something different 🤷‍♀️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Medical content
bookishvicky's review
4.5
I LOVEDDDD the world and lore and characters of this book. One thing I will say is that it felt very #woke at times for the sake of being progressive, and while I agree a lot of the problematic shit was a bit much, I think it adds a layer to the idea that Vampirdom is a metaphor for the upper class and ignorant, and having Kat go from public school to Harcote is Meant to be jarring, we’re Meant to hate Harcote and the vampires from the bat.
While I wasn’t a fan of Taylor and Kat constantly feuding and just seeming to be straight up conflict drama til the end, I loved Taylor with all my bi heart (and that cover art!!!). I was surprised that this was such a politically charged pandemic story (that did feel a bit rushed at the end, but the twist was easy to figure out as you read) with not as much lesbian vamps as I would have liked given the premise, but everything about it was just so good, I literally couldn’t stop reading. I don’t usually cross my fingers for a sequel, but I’d LOVE to explore more of this world and unique vampire lore.
While I wasn’t a fan of Taylor and Kat constantly feuding and just seeming to be straight up conflict drama til the end, I loved Taylor with all my bi heart (and that cover art!!!). I was surprised that this was such a politically charged pandemic story (that did feel a bit rushed at the end, but the twist was easy to figure out as you read) with not as much lesbian vamps as I would have liked given the premise, but everything about it was just so good, I literally couldn’t stop reading. I don’t usually cross my fingers for a sequel, but I’d LOVE to explore more of this world and unique vampire lore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Lesbophobia and Medical content
laurajones's review
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Classism, Bullying, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse
fenouil's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Homophobia
Minor: Bullying
bubbly_lara's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
What a fun read! After having watched Netflix's "First Kill", I was in the mood for more vampire stories and had seen this on Bookstagram.
And it did not disappoint! Was the plot predictable? A little - but that did not take away one single bit of the enjoyment :) plus I'm not the original target audience. I immensely enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone who'd interested in a vampire story set at an elite boarding school, with a murder mystery to solve and a childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline.
And it did not disappoint! Was the plot predictable? A little - but that did not take away one single bit of the enjoyment :) plus I'm not the original target audience. I immensely enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone who'd interested in a vampire story set at an elite boarding school, with a murder mystery to solve and a childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Classism, Blood, Bullying, and Alcohol
Minor: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, War, and Child death
dhwani's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
literally drafted all of this in my notes app so i wouldn't miss anything and made so many changes to add EVERYTHING that is wrong with this book. i still feel like i'm missing some of the stuff, though.
i absolutely HATED this book
like totally.
so our dear superwoke white MC Kat who is an ally because she asks pronouns okay,, her favourite hobby is to be an ally is all fine in her life except she's like really poor and has to do something to get out of that situation. she's also made to stay away from all the other vampires by her mom and now she longs to hang out with them so, she sends an application to this elitist vampire-only highschool and gets in with financial aid,, literally all her expenses paid
okay, it was fine till this point. her mom still doesn't want her to go and then Kat dearest is a rebel of course so she goes anyway.
there, she is coincidentally roommates with her ex?? bestfriend Taylor, then she tries to hard to fit in with the popular girls and catches the eye of the bad boy.
just like every other annoying “i'm not like other girls” girl.
then miss superwoke MC is also SO CONCERNED about the lack of “diversity” in the vampire school and then Taylor explains it by mentioning how no one would want to be at such a place where people are still crying about how they lost it all in the Civil War.
next, there's this one Chinese character, Lucy.
The author did such a terrible job with her character. she's shown as an evil person who is super rich and throws parties and then glamours humans to suck their blood when it is prohibited. like this one character had so much potential and it was ruined, just like that??
then comes our hot?? bad boy Galen.
who's half Indian.
as an Indian person, this part was so weird to read.
“My dad was involved with the British East India Company back in the day, so that's where they (his mom and dad) met.”
“You mean the British East India Company that colonised India?”
“He winced. “It's not as messed up as it sounds.” My mom doesn't talk about it much, but she's from a wealthy merchant family in Gujarat, and he spent years pursuing her until she agreed. He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village. Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
this is weird on literally so many levels. why is it “not as messed up??” the EIC colonised my country and looted it, made life hell for my ancestors, and it is not as messed up as it sounds?? they committed so many atrocities against Indian women. this is so wrong.
i also found a lot of parts that were anti-semitic but i would recommend reading Jewish own voices reviews for that.
i also hate it sm when the author makes discrimination an entire plot when they can display an inclusive community and still keep the plot going?? THE DISCRIMINATION WASN'T NEEDED IN THE WORST PLACE. harcote could be a queer-friendly school and the plot would've still held??
later, when MC is questioning her sexuality, she wonders how her friend told her “see? straight people always assume it's something you have to discover, but I was born this way”
EXCUSE ME??
there are SO MANY queer people in this world (including me) who spent YEARS questioning their sexuality to arrive at a conclusion and feel confident about who we are. sexuality is fluid and not everyone is "born that way" or whatever it is. this overtly discourages questioning people because it looks like why are they even questioning they should just know if they're gay
LITERALLY HATE IT.
ALSO, UNNECESSARY HP REFERENCE.
moreover, the writing is BAD because wtf is
“the realisation burst over me like shit from a flock of seagulls”
and the characters were SO ANNOYING like making HORRIFYING decisions literally having no common sense also Kat was making up for her lack of father figure by making this billionaire her godfather daddy and trying to make him proud AND THE PLOT WAS SO PREDICTABLE UGHH i felt like a mastermind knowing exactly how this book went
spoilers??
also Taylor lost someone so close to her and THIS GIRL KAT IS THINKING OF TAYLOR HOOKING UP WITH ANOTHER GIRL AND GETTING JEALOUS LIKE MANNN LET HER GRIEVE WTF
she's grieving and miss girl goes
“(not that i noticed what her lips were doing)”
LIKE GIRL SHE'S CRYING SHE JUST LOST SOMEONE TF IS WRONG WITH YOU????
in conclusion, a bad book which is extremely problematic with so much racism and homophobia.
i absolutely HATED this book
like totally.
so our dear superwoke white MC Kat who is an ally because she asks pronouns okay,, her favourite hobby is to be an ally is all fine in her life except she's like really poor and has to do something to get out of that situation. she's also made to stay away from all the other vampires by her mom and now she longs to hang out with them so, she sends an application to this elitist vampire-only highschool and gets in with financial aid,, literally all her expenses paid
okay, it was fine till this point. her mom still doesn't want her to go and then Kat dearest is a rebel of course so she goes anyway.
there, she is coincidentally roommates with her ex?? bestfriend Taylor, then she tries to hard to fit in with the popular girls and catches the eye of the bad boy.
just like every other annoying “i'm not like other girls” girl.
then miss superwoke MC is also SO CONCERNED about the lack of “diversity” in the vampire school and then Taylor explains it by mentioning how no one would want to be at such a place where people are still crying about how they lost it all in the Civil War.
next, there's this one Chinese character, Lucy.
The author did such a terrible job with her character. she's shown as an evil person who is super rich and throws parties and then glamours humans to suck their blood when it is prohibited. like this one character had so much potential and it was ruined, just like that??
then comes our hot?? bad boy Galen.
who's half Indian.
as an Indian person, this part was so weird to read.
“My dad was involved with the British East India Company back in the day, so that's where they (his mom and dad) met.”
“You mean the British East India Company that colonised India?”
“He winced. “It's not as messed up as it sounds.” My mom doesn't talk about it much, but she's from a wealthy merchant family in Gujarat, and he spent years pursuing her until she agreed. He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village. Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
this is weird on literally so many levels. why is it “not as messed up??” the EIC colonised my country and looted it, made life hell for my ancestors, and it is not as messed up as it sounds?? they committed so many atrocities against Indian women. this is so wrong.
i also found a lot of parts that were anti-semitic but i would recommend reading Jewish own voices reviews for that.
i also hate it sm when the author makes discrimination an entire plot when they can display an inclusive community and still keep the plot going?? THE DISCRIMINATION WASN'T NEEDED IN THE WORST PLACE. harcote could be a queer-friendly school and the plot would've still held??
later, when MC is questioning her sexuality, she wonders how her friend told her “see? straight people always assume it's something you have to discover, but I was born this way”
EXCUSE ME??
there are SO MANY queer people in this world (including me) who spent YEARS questioning their sexuality to arrive at a conclusion and feel confident about who we are. sexuality is fluid and not everyone is "born that way" or whatever it is. this overtly discourages questioning people because it looks like why are they even questioning they should just know if they're gay
LITERALLY HATE IT.
ALSO, UNNECESSARY HP REFERENCE.
moreover, the writing is BAD because wtf is
“the realisation burst over me like shit from a flock of seagulls”
and the characters were SO ANNOYING like making HORRIFYING decisions literally having no common sense also Kat was making up for her lack of father figure by making this billionaire her godfather daddy and trying to make him proud AND THE PLOT WAS SO PREDICTABLE UGHH i felt like a mastermind knowing exactly how this book went
spoilers??
also Taylor lost someone so close to her and THIS GIRL KAT IS THINKING OF TAYLOR HOOKING UP WITH ANOTHER GIRL AND GETTING JEALOUS LIKE MANNN LET HER GRIEVE WTF
she's grieving and miss girl goes
“(not that i noticed what her lips were doing)”
LIKE GIRL SHE'S CRYING SHE JUST LOST SOMEONE TF IS WRONG WITH YOU????
in conclusion, a bad book which is extremely problematic with so much racism and homophobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, and Lesbophobia
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
(14-March edit: Author has confirmed the reference will be removed! Am very excited!)
I really enjoyed this one, but the HP reference at 93% was really unnecessary. WHY!? Especially in a queer book. WHY!?
Youngblood follows estranged best friends Kat Finn and Taylor Sanger. As vampires, both of them are dependent on Hema, a blood substitute. But their access to Hema is very different. Kat and her mother live in poverty and can barely afford Hema and their rent. When Kat is offered a full ride scholarship and all other expenses paid to Harcote School, a private academy, for young vampires, she jumps at the chance to lift a burden from her mother.
When Kat and Taylor become roommates, they decide to be civil with each other. When Taylor finds the body of her vampire teacher and Kat unearths secrets in the school archive, the two realize much more is happening at Harcote than any of the other students realize. Taylor has always been an out and proud lesbian, and Kat has always thought she was straight, but she comes to think that she might have feelings for her roommate after all.
I really enjoyed this one. I love boarding school stories. I was so excited to see one about queer vampires finally. Gave me so many Vampire Academy vibes, but even better! I loved both Kat and Taylor as characters. The chemistry between these two was almost unbearable. I swear I spent most of this book going "Kiss Already!". It was such a great slow burn, and I really appreciated seeing Kat's questioning journey on page, I think a lot of sapphic queer people will relate.
One thing that did bug me was that Kat is all for social justice activism, but refers to multiple people as "guys". She disparages the Headmaster for using "ladies and gentleman" as a non-inclusive phrase (and she's right), but she also doesn't use gender neutral language. Guys is not a gender neutral term, but some that are: y'all, people, everyone, friends, cowards etc. Making an inherently masculine term the default is the opposite of being gender neutral. It really bugs me that she seemed to be so progressive on similar issues, but not this one? Made me sad.
Rep: white questioning-sapphic female MC, white lesbian female MC, white queer nonbinary side character, Salvadorian gay male side character, Chinese female side character, biracial white-Indian male side character, Black side character (briefly mentioned).
CWs: Lesbophobia/lesbomisia, blood, murder, violence, panic attack. Moderate: general queerphobia/queermisia, racism, ableist language, biological warfare, death, medical content.
(14-March edit: Author has confirmed the reference will be removed! Am very excited!)
Youngblood follows estranged best friends Kat Finn and Taylor Sanger. As vampires, both of them are dependent on Hema, a blood substitute. But their access to Hema is very different. Kat and her mother live in poverty and can barely afford Hema and their rent. When Kat is offered a full ride scholarship and all other expenses paid to Harcote School, a private academy, for young vampires, she jumps at the chance to lift a burden from her mother.
When Kat and Taylor become roommates, they decide to be civil with each other. When Taylor finds the body of her vampire teacher and Kat unearths secrets in the school archive, the two realize much more is happening at Harcote than any of the other students realize. Taylor has always been an out and proud lesbian, and Kat has always thought she was straight, but she comes to think that she might have feelings for her roommate after all.
I really enjoyed this one. I love boarding school stories. I was so excited to see one about queer vampires finally. Gave me so many Vampire Academy vibes, but even better! I loved both Kat and Taylor as characters. The chemistry between these two was almost unbearable. I swear I spent most of this book going "Kiss Already!". It was such a great slow burn, and I really appreciated seeing Kat's questioning journey on page, I think a lot of sapphic queer people will relate.
One thing that did bug me was that Kat is all for social justice activism, but refers to multiple people as "guys". She disparages the Headmaster for using "ladies and gentleman" as a non-inclusive phrase (and she's right), but she also doesn't use gender neutral language. Guys is not a gender neutral term, but some that are: y'all, people, everyone, friends, cowards etc. Making an inherently masculine term the default is the opposite of being gender neutral. It really bugs me that she seemed to be so progressive on similar issues, but not this one? Made me sad.
Rep: white questioning-sapphic female MC, white lesbian female MC, white queer nonbinary side character, Salvadorian gay male side character, Chinese female side character, biracial white-Indian male side character, Black side character (briefly mentioned).
CWs: Lesbophobia/lesbomisia, blood, murder, violence, panic attack. Moderate: general queerphobia/queermisia, racism, ableist language, biological warfare, death, medical content.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Medical content, and Racism
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