Book Review: Fang Girl by Helen Keeble

Fang Girl
Author: Helen Keeble
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Paranormal
Released: September 11th 2012
Review Source: Harper Teen
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Things That Are Destroying Jane Greene’s Undead Social Life Before It Can Even Begin:

1) A twelve-year-old brother who’s convinced she’s a zombie.
2) Parents who are begging her to turn them into vampires.
3) The pet goldfish she accidentally turns instead.
4) Weird superpowers that let her rip the heads off of every other vampire she meets.(Sounds cool, but it doesn’t win you many friends.)
5) A psychotic vampire creator who’s using her to carry out a plan for world domination.

And finally:
6) A seriously ripped vampire hunter who either wants to stake her or make out with her. Not sure which.

Being an undead, eternally pasty fifteen-year-old isn’t quite the sexy, brooding, angst-fest Jane always imagined....

Helen Keeble’s riotous debut novel combines the humor of Vladimir Tod with Ally Carter’s spot-on teen voice. With a one-of-a-kind vampire mythology and an irresistibly relatable undead heroine, this uproarious page-turner will leave readers bloodthirsty for more.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The front cover has some slightly bloody fangs sitting in a glass filled with a clear liquid. It looked kind of gross, but I got passed that when I started reading the book. So funny!! I love Xanthe Jane Greene's sense of humor! This book reminded me of the Vladimir Tod (by Heather Brewer) series, and had me clutching at my sides in fits of laughter at times. I also liked reading Helen's take on vampire mythology.

Fifteen year-old Jane is a huge vampire fan, saw every episode of Buffy and The Vampire Diaries multiple times and always "hung out" on Fan-Girls.net, a popular fan site online for everything vampire related. She also eludes to some of my favorite books (the Twilight series) and movies--which was enough to keep me interested. She claimed that she really didn't believe that vampires were real, well not until she woke up dead...in a coffin underground. Her "sire" helps her get out of her grave, and where does she go? Home. Yep, and with a family like Jane's I understand why. Her parents were hilarious as was her little brother, Zack. I thought it highly amusing that her parents wanted her to turn them into vampires so that they could help take care of her.

Jane meets her "maker" and some other vampires throughout the book. She becomes friends with another vampire named Ebon, who her brother just loves. She also meets a vampire hunter (of course). There weren't any werewolves, though, but there was some shape-shifting. Jane is a super-cool vampire with lots of powers and there are vampires on the "good side" and "bad side" who want to use those powers.

I really liked this book and the characters. There were a few jaw-dropping moments that I just did not see coming. The characters and twists-and-turns in the plot kept me interested and turning the pages quickly. The best part about this book was the comedy, though. This book was so much fun to read and had me smiling and chuckling throughout.