Vamplayers

April 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 It says a lot about how vampires have played out in pop culture that harkening back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer could be considered a throwback to a classic. But that's just what Fischer does in this almost spoof, with added touches of Mean Girls nastiness and True Blood lustiness thrown in for good measure. It's eternal teen vampire Lily's job to transfer to a new school, sniff out the Vamplayer ( part vampire, part player ) threatening some unsuspecting hot girl, and make sure he can't infest the school with evil. Her latest gig at a remote boarding school offers up more than the bubbleheaded slayer bargained for, though. Fischer paints his characters with pretty broad strokes (everyone is either gorgeous, a nerd, or a gorgeous nerd), and the internal logic is a bit muddled, but this isn't a book to be pondered too deeply. In terms of campy, bloody fun, it delivers, and with a tagline so bad it's great ( Don't hate the game. Hate the Vamplayer ) this might even find some cache as an ironic favorite.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)