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A review by tealeafbooks
Sweetblood by Pete Hautman
3.0
I recommend this, particularly if you want to fill revisit the time when YA vampire novels had a surge. This book was published two years before Twilight and that big surge in popularity, but I feel like if I had read this when I was spending "too much" time reading paranormal vampire/werewolf/witch/etc. YA novels, this would've definitely stood out.
It disappoints in parts and the Type 1 Diabetic-me wants to yell at Lucy throughout the novel. It is also dated, but not necessarily in a bad way. This would be a slightly different novel if it had been published in the era of Nick Jonas popularizing the OmniPod (which is in the past, too--not sure if he still uses the OmniPod...but the Jonas brothers seem to be entering the news again, so maybe I'll learn what he uses now...anyway...), the time of the continuous glucose monitors (and CGMs continue to improve), and the time when insulin pumps are often preferred to injections (for instance, when I got my insulin pump, they were hesitant to give video-game-looking devices to children--now, that is a more normalized treatment). I am also disappointed by the calling diabetes being "sick." Yes, Lucy does get sick as a result of her poorly treated diabetes, but diabetes itself is not being sick. It is a disease. It may seem weird, but I am perfectly happy and comfortable to walk around saying "I have a disease," but I would never say "I am sick" unless I had a fever or the sniffles.
What did I like about this book? Many things. The tone of the narrator's voice is what pulled me through the whole novel. She is hilarious and dark and angsty. Because of Lucy, I would actually not mind reading a sequel to this novel. What next? (Maybe there is a sequel? I haven't looked it up.) I also enjoyed the sensory experience. There's a certain type of paper that smells wonderful. It's different than just Old Book Scent. It's more specific. Maybe it's how paper used for YA novels published between the late nineties and early 2000s smells once it has aged a bit. Anyway, the scent of the library book just made me feel so happy and a bit sentimental.
So, I'm not saying that this book is on the higher side of the 3 star (and 3 stars is good coming from me) reviews I've given, but it is worth reading. Yes, it may make you think about your mortality and it might make you cringe. But maybe, there's the possibility that this is the vampire novel that is the one you should've read during that vampire craze. It is a vampire novel, but it also isn't.
It disappoints in parts and the Type 1 Diabetic-me wants to yell at Lucy throughout the novel. It is also dated, but not necessarily in a bad way. This would be a slightly different novel if it had been published in the era of Nick Jonas popularizing the OmniPod (which is in the past, too--not sure if he still uses the OmniPod...but the Jonas brothers seem to be entering the news again, so maybe I'll learn what he uses now...anyway...), the time of the continuous glucose monitors (and CGMs continue to improve), and the time when insulin pumps are often preferred to injections (for instance, when I got my insulin pump, they were hesitant to give video-game-looking devices to children--now, that is a more normalized treatment). I am also disappointed by the calling diabetes being "sick." Yes, Lucy does get sick as a result of her poorly treated diabetes, but diabetes itself is not being sick. It is a disease. It may seem weird, but I am perfectly happy and comfortable to walk around saying "I have a disease," but I would never say "I am sick" unless I had a fever or the sniffles.
What did I like about this book? Many things. The tone of the narrator's voice is what pulled me through the whole novel. She is hilarious and dark and angsty. Because of Lucy, I would actually not mind reading a sequel to this novel. What next? (Maybe there is a sequel? I haven't looked it up.) I also enjoyed the sensory experience. There's a certain type of paper that smells wonderful. It's different than just Old Book Scent. It's more specific. Maybe it's how paper used for YA novels published between the late nineties and early 2000s smells once it has aged a bit. Anyway, the scent of the library book just made me feel so happy and a bit sentimental.
So, I'm not saying that this book is on the higher side of the 3 star (and 3 stars is good coming from me) reviews I've given, but it is worth reading. Yes, it may make you think about your mortality and it might make you cringe. But maybe, there's the possibility that this is the vampire novel that is the one you should've read during that vampire craze. It is a vampire novel, but it also isn't.