Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Fallacious Fat

Fat Vampire by Adam Rex



This book gets a 2 out of 5 gnomes, It has a brilliant premise for pretty much the first half of the book but then it kind of throws that right out the window towards the end and the main character becomes unlikeable. 


This book was really kind of disappointing.  I was drawn in by the cover and the synopsis.  I was the first person to even request it from the library. 


Ok, first the premise, Doug is fifteen and now a vampire but he wasn't good looking when he became a vampire hence the title Fat Vampire.  The only other person he tells about being a vampire is his best friend Jay.  The have some very funny escapades in the beginning of the book that involve going to Comic Con and a blood mobile.  Doug usually gets his blood from cows but they have quite the trip to the zoo that involves a panda mom, a baby panda, and a video camera.  Doug escapes but is seen on tape by the camera.


Then comes in the other very entertaining part of this book, the Vampire Hunters TV show.  The host of this show is seen as being pretty much certifiable by his staff.  All they usually do is track down European guys with bad accents and lately have shows of them shooting dummies with stake guns.  Then they see a video and he's sure that there is a real vampire out there aka Doug.


There is humor to be found in this book, the beginning is chock full of funny.  My favorite part is when Doug is trying to transform into a bat but gets stuck halfway thus looking pretty horrifying.  Another great part is the story that Doug tells and the true story about who actually made Doug a vampire.  


The love interest of the book, Sejal, seems like she is going to fit well into the book but she just doesn't.  She has the Google, which is portrayed like severe internet addiction.  When you find out here whole story it just makes her unlikeable.  She seems like a character that didn't even need to be added to the book.

Overall I really wish the book would have continued along like the first part where it was just Doug and Jay and the Vampire Hunters TV show that is after Doug.  When you bring in a love interest who is not interested, and a group or new and old vampires that are supposed to mentor the new vampires, things just kind of fall apart.


The minute Doug starts taking blood from a human he turns into a well to put it nicely, a jerk.  Technically though he should have been changing into a jerk earlier/become better looking from the blood that he stole from a blood mobile earlier in the book.  He even acts like a superhero at one point but nothing ever comes of that part of the story.


The ending, wow, it made me really mad I won't spoil it for you but I hate when endings make no sense or just seem lazy.


This had the creative potential to be truly awesome but alas the author did not put the pieces together in a pleasing way.

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