Blue Bloods

June 5, 2006
De la Cruz combines American history, vampires and a crew of rich New York City kids, delivering a page-turning debut to her new series, sure to appeal to fans of her Au Pairs titles. When 15-year-olds Schuyler and Bliss find out that they are vampires, as are many of the city's elite, they learn what's behind some of their weird symptoms (such as Schuyler's blue veins, which form "an intricate pattern, visible under the skin's surface," or Bliss's cravings for raw meat), and that "nothing could kill vampires." But something is hunting them, even killing some, and Schuyler grows more determined to stop it, even as the Conclave, the vampire leaders, attempts to cover it up. Readers will recognize the character types here: Schuyler the outcast, Bliss the pretty new girl and Mimi the popular queen bee (who nurses a somewhat incestuous relationship with her equally gorgeous brother). Not many question are answered along the way, even for the start of a series. Still, it's hard to resist a book that combines expensive clothes, modeling jobs, blood-sucking and even diary entries from a Mayflower
vampire. De la Cruz plants enough seeds (e.g., What does it mean that Schuyler's father is human? Will her mother come out of her coma? Who are the Silver Bloods, and is one of them hiding amongst the vampires?) to give readers a stake in what happens next. Ages 12-up.

May 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-The first volume in this popular vampire series is now available in graphic format. The story begins with a flashback to a handwritten 1620 diary, chronicling the arrival of vampires with Myles Standish and the early Mayflower colonists. It quickly segues to a contemporary club scene in New York City. Readers meet 15-year-old Schuyler and her classmates from an elite prep school, as well as Bliss, newly arrived from Texas. The girls begin to experience unusual symptoms, including blue veins that form intricate patterns just below the surface of the skin. Schuyler discovers that she and her glamorous young friends are Blue Bloods, a form of fallen angels or vampires. She learns that something is hunting them, even killing some of them, and she is determined to stop their annihilation, even if she must contend with the vampire hierarchy. Graphic devices help readers keep track of the frequently changing scenes and multiple characters. Small black boxes with white lettering provide introductions to the numerous characters, and boxes shaded in pale blue give time and location information. Occasionally the artist uses changes in color palette to signal scene changes. The numerous abrupt changes create a reading experience that is often disjointed, constantly fluctuating among the various characters' story lines. Realistic art highlights the glamorous lifestyle of these upper-class young "immortals," and the graphic images of blue-blood veins are particularly effective.-Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Grades 8-12 A girl is dead, a demon may or may not be on the loose, and 15-year-old Schuyler Van Alen has just discovered blue veins on her arms. Schuyler has an illustrious last name and attends an even more illustrious private school, but she's never felt comfortable in that world of glitz, glamour, and gold-plated everything. The girl who died was Schuyler's schoolmate. And Jack Force, one of the popular Force twins, who rule her school, has developed a sudden, dizzying interest in Schuyler. Strange happenings are afoot in wealthy, modern Manhattan. Venditti and Urusov have done an excellent job of adapting the first novel in de la Cruz's complicated and much-beloved Blue Bloods series into a graphic novel. Urusov's stylish and stylized artwork showcases the gossip-girl-meets-vampires theme of the original book and perfectly complements Venditti's action-oriented pacing and plot-propelling dialogue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
This is a graphic novel adaptation of de la Cruz's fallen-angels-as-vampires soap opera. The panel illustrations successfully employ light effects, cropping, shading, and impossibly beautiful characters to add an industry-standard gloss to the appearance-driven plot. Unfortunately, de la Cruz's nonsensical plot remains nonsensical, especially in the abbreviated, dialogue-only graphic-novel format.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)