Life Sucks

Dave Miller is stuck in his dead end job at the Last Stop convenience store. Really stuck. Ever since he applied for the job and the owner turned him into his own personal vampire wage slave. The only bright spot in his nights is when the goth girls leave the local juice bar and come into the store to pick up snacks. Dave is particularly taken with the beautiful Rosa, but feels destined to be "just friends". Especially since there are other gorgeous vamps like Wes around, who are ready to make girls like Rosa who think they want to be vamps into their vampire brides.

Vegetarian (re blood bank drinker) Dave challenges Wes not to use his powers over Rosa, and to try to win her the old fashioned way. Will the good guy win?

The amazing team of Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece have created a fabulous vampire story that takes away some of the romance and makes readers see that life as the undead isn't as glamorous as it seems. Eternity is, after all, just that. The panels on page 139 brilliantly portray this.

Now as a former goth girl, I am a little particular about the portrayal of that segment of our population. I think that Life Sucks hits it spot on. From the clothing and style of the goth kids, to the reactions of those outside of the circle, it all felt right. The illustrations themselves are rich and defined, and the reader seems somewhat unaware of the fact that everything is taking place at night.

Do yourself a favor and pick it up. A great and different take on the vampire story.

The Professor's Daughter

It's 19th Century England, and the Professor's daughter Lillian has gone and fallen in love with the handsome mummy of Imhotep IV. Not exactly the best match, hmm? After Imhotep gets loopy from taking tea and smashes up the tea room, police come calling. Lillian doses the tea she offers to the police, thinking that she will be able to get Imhotep out of her father's suit, and put away before any more trouble ensues. Alas, she ends up killing the officers, and what follows rivals many an action film.

From long lost fathers, to kidnapping, to noble sacrifices for love, Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert have put together a graphic novel that zips along. The far-fetched story did not grab me as much as the GORgeous illustrations. From the sepia tones of early panels to the bright red coats of the palace guards, The Professor's Daughter is a visual stunner.

Minx Double Feature - Clubbing, Good As Lily

First off, we have Clubbing, by Andi Watson and Josh Howard.


The cover will be your first clue at why I was interested in this book. Lottie is a spoiled gothy London girl, who gets busted trying to use a fake ID, and shipped off to her grands in the Lake District. Not exactly her scene. And it's not only the rain. Her grandparents live on the grounds of a country club, and have plans for Lottie's days of banishment. She will be working in the pro-shop and helping her gran out with her ladies club activities.


It seems that things couldn't get more boring when a body shows up in the water with an occult symbol carved into her arm! And what's more, Lottie saw her grandfather arguing with the woman just that morning.


Now Lottie, and local boy Howard are investigating the crime, which turns out to have a supernatural bent. Ritualistic sacrifice, anyone?


Fun, fun, fun!



Next off is Good As Lily, by Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm.

Lily is turning 18, and her friends throw her a party in the park. Lily's a pretty lucky girl. Her friends are loyal, and they do love her. After she opens her presents, the ice cream lady in the park manages to convince Lily that she needs a pinata and not cones. Soon Lily finds herself with the pinata lodged on her head.

Then, the weirdness starts.

Upon revisiting the park, Lily finds a crying young girl, a drowning 29 year old, and an ornery old lady! And they are all her.

Imagine coming face to face with your child self, almost 30 self, and senior self. More importantly, how is Lily going to get through her last semester of high school with all of these Lily's hanging around. Especially when her 29 year old self keeps hitting on her drama teacher!


A wonderfully different story about family, friendship, loyalty and love.

Bindy Mackenzie

So. I have been reading, but not blogging. I don't like when I do this, because things get a little fuzzy. I will be working backwards for the next few titles.

This is a book that I have been meaning to read for a while. I loved The Year of Secret Assignments, Feeling Sorry for Celia - not so much. But Moriarty got me back with this title.

Bindy is an intense girl. Competitive. Smart. And frankly... a little above her fellow students. She simply cannot believe it when a new course called FAD falls into her year 11 plans.

Friends and Development. What is that supposed to mean? For Bindy, it means sitting in a storage room behind a concertina wall, with a bunch of kids who she can no longer stand. It means being forced to socialize with teenagers when Bindy perceives herself as so far beyond that.

Year 11 is not turning out as it should. For one thing, Bindy is no longer living with her folks, rather with her Auntie and Uncle and cousin Bella. For some reason she is unable to concentrate like she usually can. She isn't handing in her assignments, and she's feeling quite ill. And this FAD class is just getting in the way of everything. Even Bindy's habit of transcribing everything she hears no longer brings comfort.

The Life (Murder) of Bindy Mackenzie is a far fetched tale of the best kind. Bindy is thoroughly annoying, yet readers have sympathy for her. We want her to to catch a clue! Moriarty has the pacing down perfectly, and has written a fun, fast story that fans of more recent titles like Pretty Little Liarswill want to revisit.

The Mistress of the Art of Death

There used to be a time in my life when I read quite a few forensic style mysteries. This is the first I have read in a while - this title being a choice of our grown-up summer book club.

The year is 1170 and the place is Cambridgeshire, England. Children are disappearing, and the village is up in arms. Surely the town Jews are to blame. Child sacrifice is part of the culture afterall, isn't it?

King Henry needs to keep all elements of his kingdom in line. He needs the tax money from all areas, he needs peace. He tells his tax collector "Peace is money, Aaron, and money is peace." (p.10)

So how to solve these disappearances? Henry calls for one of the best detectives from Italy by way of his cousin, the King of Sicily. Simon of Naples is to come over to clear the name of the town Jews, and to find out what really happend. And to accompany him, a master in the art of death will come as well. This person is schooled in reading dead bodies for clues as to how they were killed. What Henry and Simon do not count on is that this person is a woman. Adelia is the child of professors and a student from the University of Solerno...one of the only places where a woman is allowed an education.

How will she fare in medieval England where the Church rules as well as the King, and women with knowledge are oft accused of witchcraft? And what will happen to those accused when the children start surfacing -- their bodies obviously violated before death in numerous ways?

Ariana Franklin has written quite the page turner. And, I have to say it ... eeewww! Lots of detail that I would have done quite well without. Mind you, the detail is not over-the-top in a gore for the sake of it way. It certainly ties in with the plot. But what made this title so readable for me, were the characters and their development. Adelia herself is complicated, smart, and torn. Little Ulf is utterly charming in his own messy way, as is his grandmother Glytha.

The reader also gets a real sense of the racism, religious fervor, and overall danger of the times. Unless you were a catholic, white man, your very existence could be wiped out with very little consequence.

While this title didn't capture me as much as last summer's The Historian, I did learn quite a bit about the time period, and it has spurred me on to want to read some non-fiction about the times.