Hunted

May 1, 2019

Amber Fang is a young library school student trying to earn her MLS, but her thirst for blood keeps getting in the way. Amber is a vampire, and while her mother instilled in her the importance of choosing her food ethically-meaning feeding only on unrepentant murderers-it makes staying in once place long enough to finish school difficult. Amber's thorough research into her victim's backgrounds, her incredible discipline, and her clean and traceless kills catch the eye of a shadowy organization, which hires her as an assassin. At first it's fun. What could be more ideal for a broke student? But Amber isn't sure this mysterious organization's ethics measure up to hers. Snappy dialogue and the groundwork for an opposites-attract romance will appeal to reluctant readers, and the quick pace makes it easy to get through sections where the plot becomes thin. VERDICT Fast and funny, this book will entice those who wished Buffy was the vampire.-Beth McIntyre, Madison Public Library, WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2019
A 24-year-old library science student is swept into a dangerous game--even for a vampire.The well-trodden world of vampires has a new, bookish addition in Amber Fang. Remaining nomadic to outrun suspicion, Amber feeds on a strict monthly schedule and under an even stricter moral code--no innocents, only remorseless murderers and evildoers. After the disappearance of her mother, however, Amber suddenly finds herself the hunted instead of the hunter, pursued and recruited by a secret organization simply called the League that wants to unleash her appetite on the world's most powerful criminals. But there is more at play than anyone lets on, and Amber soon realizes how little she knows about the League, about the people they want her to drain, and perhaps especially about her own fellow vampires. Slade (Crimson, 2018, etc.) has chosen an interesting approach to a vampire narrative, the first in a planned series, focusing on intrigue, global threats, and mysterious backstories--a recipe more typical of a spy thriller and one that is made tangy with the liberal sprinkling of paranormal drama. Amber's first-person narration is immediate and, at times, overly sardonic but entertainingly irreverent all the same. Those in the know will find Slade's librarian jokes and fictional MLIS curriculum either irritating or hilarious in their inaccuracies.Imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer--except Buffy is the vampire and has the research skills of Giles. (Paranormal thriller. 14-adult)

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March 1, 2019
Grades 8-12 Amber Fang, vampire and library science student, has two passions: drinking blood and doing research. She only dines on murderers, and then only if they are unrepentant; her research into potential meals is impeccable, needing ironclad proof. Finding ethical meals takes time, often putting Amber perilously close to the 30-day limit vampires can go without feeding. So when a shadowy organization offers Amber an assassin job, she agrees to one trial mission. They intend to fight evil and promise killers aplenty, with documentation to fulfill Amber's moral requirement. The deal is perhaps too good to be true, as Amber discovers. Slade's vampire mythos is interesting, and he ends this fast-paced, entertaining story in the right place to keep interest piqued for the series' next installment. Misanthropic Amber seems immature for 24, reactionary and flippant when confronted with the fallout of her poor decision-making; yet there is evidence of growth. With short sentences, simple language, and a plot that will appeal to older readers, this is a good choice for reluctant teen and even adult readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)