Saturday, December 22, 2012

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: July 3rd, 2012
Source: library
 
Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn't mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It's up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity!

On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure that is equal parts hilarious and touching.

Review: I was browsing through my library's branch for e-books when I saw Team Human pop up on the catalogue and remembering Holly's review for it, I decided to give it a shot and clicked DOWNLOAD. I have read that this was a spoof of all things vampire (*coughs* twilight) and though I was expecting something funny (which I got), I didn't expect for Team Human to be so thought-provoking or moving.

I'll admit that while reading the first two or three chapters I wasn't totally hooked on the story but once Mel ventures into a certain vampire cop's house, things start to get really good and my poor kindle button had to suffer the abuse of being constantly pressed because AHHH I couldn't click to turn the pages fast enough. I ended up devouring the book in like two days (sleep got in the way as it it wont to do). Even though Mel is too rash at times and a tad judgemental, she's still the kind of main character that you can't help but like and you'll want to be on her side regardless. Of course, the rest of the characters are all just as developed as our protagonist and they've all been affected with different situations that give them differing opinions about vampires.

Out of all the secondary characters, my favorites were Mel's friend Anna and Kit. Anna has every reason to hate the vampires after what they did to her family while Kit (who is adorkably awkward) feels completely different towards them, even wanting to become one once he's of age. Even though Cathy tilts Mel's world upside down once she decides to be with a vampire permanently, I felt like Kit and Anna's situations were able to give her far more perspective. And omgosh, KIT. Being raised by vampires, he has an entirely different viewpoint on them (and causes some super awkward moments between himself and Mel) but he's so utterly charming and human that you just...ugh, I can't. He and Mel are opposites of each other and yet they work so well together.

Final verdict: Team Human is super funny but underneath the wry humor, there's a lot of depth that readers can appreciate. At its core, Team Human is about the choices we make and accepting others when they don't always decide on what we think is best. I didn't expect this book to grab me as it did but it was a huge and welcome surprise to find out that it had much more than some funny one-liners. I heartily recommend it to anyone that wants to read a vampire book that is truly unique, surprising and that brings up a lot of feels and thoughts (also, as an added incentive you'll get to find out what Mel's real name is and nope, it's not Melanie!). 
 
Justine's Clickables: {main website}  {blog}  {twitter}
 
Sarah's Clickables: {main website} {tumblr} {twitter}
 

2 comments:

  1. Haha, I already forgot what Men'sreal name is. nice review! This was a surprise hit for me as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. *Mel's real name. Oh, the drawbacks of phone commenting.

    ReplyDelete