Fake Blood
Fake Blood book cover

Fake Blood

Hardcover – Illustrated, September 4, 2018

Price
$21.99
Format
Hardcover
Pages
336
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1481495561
Dimensions
7 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Weight
2.45 pounds

Description

"Whitney Gardner puts an unexpected twist on the classic dilemma of how to be yourself. Full of cleverness, charm, and—most importantly— vampires , FAKE BLOOD gives readers a fresh new voice and a taste of something truly special." -- Booki Vivat, the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of FRAZZLED“FAKE BLOOD is a sweet and funny book with a surprise ending and plenty of winks for lovers of vampire fiction — but more than that, it’s a story about trying on identities and learning to be comfortable with yourself.” -- Molly Knox Ostertag, author-illustrator of The Witch Boy“Charming, hilarious, and full of vampires . . .xa0my favorite kind of graphic novel!” -- James Riley, New York Times bestselling author of Story Thieves*"“[T]hink Raina Telgemeier with a Noelle Stevenson slant…Gardner's middle school romp is a magnum opus.” ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Gardner’s tale, which includes a share of lighthearted pokes at the Twilight series, is a fun romp through sixth grade." ― Publishers Weekly "The dialogue and pop culture references in this graphic novel are LOL funny." ― Girls Life “Gardner’s artwork isxa0whimsical and charming, and the cartoonish faces perfectly capture the extreme moods inherent in this age. Warm colours and dynamic shifts in visual perspective give Fake Blood an autumnal coziness that pulls the reader into each scene. The story has a simple sweetness to it, championing family and friendship over hard-core action or fighting.” ― Quill & Quire Whitney Gardner is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She started drawing stick figures in second grade and somehow no one’s been able to stop her. If there’s ever a moment when she isn’t drawing, she’s likely to be found rolling twenty-sided dice. Her favorite color is yellow. She is the author of the YA novels You’re Welcome, Universe and Chaotic Good , as well as the creator of Fake Blood and Long Distance and the illustrator for Debbie Levy’s Becoming RBG and Stephanie Cooke’s The Racc Pack series.

Features & Highlights

  • “LOL funny.” –
  • Girls Life
  • A
  • Huffington Post
  • Best Children’s Book of 2018
  • A middle schooler comes head-to-head with his vampire slayer crush in this laugh-out-loud funny graphic novel that’s a perfect coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever felt too young, too small, or too average.
  • It’s the beginning of the new school year and AJ feels like everyone is changing but him. He hasn’t grown or had any exciting summer adventures like his best friends have. He even has the same crush he’s harbored for years. So AJ decides to take matters into his own hands. But how could a girl like Nia Winters ever like plain vanilla AJ when she only has eyes for vampires? When AJ and Nia are paired up for a group project on Transylvania, it may be AJ’s chance to win over Nia’s affection by dressing up like the vamp of her dreams. And soon enough he’s got more of Nia’s attention than he bargained for when he learns she’s a
  • slayer
  • . Now AJ has to worry about self-preservation while also trying to save everyone he cares about from a real-life threat lurking in the shadows of Spoons Middle School.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(158)
★★★★
25%
(66)
★★★
15%
(39)
★★
7%
(18)
-7%
(-18)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

So much fun, I read it twice over!

If you're a bit of a paranormal geek like me, you'll appreciate this book with its references to vampires and werewolves (and cultural stereotypes about them). It's about a middle school boy who's uncomfortable in his own skin, so he tries to be someone else - and that backfires. This book is thick, well-made, has beautiful (and quirky) art. It's witty, fun, and heartfelt, and the characters feel unique. My favorite is the teacher. The end felt a little anti-climatic to me, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. There was more to enjoy going back through it the second time.
5 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Funny, Heartfelt, and Beautifully Drawn

Fake Blood is a funny and heartfelt graphic novel about friendship, identity, and yes: vampires. Gardner's snappy dialogue and colorful, exciting illustrations bring AJ and his friends to life. I especially loved the larger illustrated scenes where there was always a fun little detail to spot. Packed with funny pop-culture references to popular vampire series and characters, there's something here for diehard and casual fans alike. I'd certainly love to see these characters again! A fantastic addition to middle grade libraries.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

You’ll want to sink your teeth into this book by Whitney Gardner

My children loved FAKE BLOOD! My son read it cover to cover in one day and immediately reread the book a second time. He is now sharing FAKE BLOOD with his friends and classmates. I highly recommend this book.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Adorable book with wonderful art!

This was such an adorable book with beautiful art. It's a fun take on a vampire craze, with good-natured parodies of things like Twilight while also being a lovely story of friendship and first crushes.

It has the perfect combination of:
- Twilight jokes
- Nerdy kids trying their best
- Fake??? Vampires
- Wonderful art

It's perfect for kids and also fun to read as an adult!
✓ Verified Purchase

Fun and heavy with the Buffy/Twilight references

See more of my reviews on The YA Kitten! I got a review copy of Fake Blood courtesy of a publicist as a reviewer for YA Books Central.

If the climate crisis doesn’t kill us off in two decades, I’m gonna be an ancient woman one day and still devouring every vampire book around. You can surely imagine how much it delights me to see vampires return to mainstream publishing in books like Fake Blood after years of them being “out of style.” Heck, most of the target audience was born during the vampire book heyday without ever getting to enjoy it! But this little book right here looks to bring that excitement and fun to the post-Twilight generation.

AJ is your average kid and doesn’t have anything exciting going on in his life, but he’s got a serious crush on his classmate Nia. His efforts to win her affection by pretending to be a vampire since she says herself she’s obsessed with the creatures are utterly adorkable and also significantly better than my childhood attempts to get my crushes to like me. You really don’t wanna know what kind of stuff I did.

Naturally, things go wrong. Nia is a vampire slayer and is looking to slay him, his best friends get mad at him, and his new teacher is more of an oddball than AJ himself is. Though AJ is the main character of the book, Nia is the shining star of it all. Making the vampire slayer a butt-kicking, complex black girl is downright revolutionary among notoriously white vampire stories (and I’m not talking out my rear here, I read most of the YA vampire books and they were really white).

If this had been out when I was in middle school and brand-new to both reading and vampires, I would have looooooooooved Fake Blood. I still like it plenty and particularly enjoyed the simple, whimsical illustration style.

The novel is hilarious too, but a great deal of references and humor are going to be lost on the kids the book is intended for. Everywhere you look, there’s a reference to and/or joke about either Twilight or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, like AJ reading the Twilight knockoff and commenting that “they’re not even in Transsylvania!” when he gets to the prismatic vampires. Jokes about the most famous YA vampire book are out of style now and the Buffy ones are years older than that! Not to mention they’re beating a dead horse.

If adults read this book, like parents with their kids, the grown-ups are going to get all those jokes and love it. The thing is that this book isn’t for them and all the jokes catering to them feel out of place.

Fake Blood is an entertainer for all ages and if the kids feel up to reading YA books after this, Whitney Gardner’s own YA books carry the same kind of humor, Chaotic Good particularly so. There’s no shame in someone reading books meant for an older or younger audience than them as long as they enjoy and understand what they’re reading!
✓ Verified Purchase

This book is so insanely cute

This book is so insanely cute. The artwork is stellar, and I love that there is so much reading. I covet AJ's room and his bookshelves (NERD). Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate Nia? She is the ACTUAL BEST. I love everything about her, including her dope beads.

Super fun read, and I enjoyed all the twists.
✓ Verified Purchase

Hilarious, adorable graphic novel to enjoy at all ages

I haven't read a graphic novel in forever but this one was EXCELLENT. I laughed out loud multiple times and I adored all of the characters. AJ's crush on Nia was so adorable and the fact that their quirky teacher Mr. Niles was a big part of the story cracked me up.

I definitely suggest for middle grade lovers or for anyone who loves fun, humorous graphic novels.
✓ Verified Purchase

Did you feel Smile & Sisters needed more vampires? This is the book for you!!

When you're in sixth grade, kids do all sorts of things to stand out or fit in like buying a new backpack, joining a club, or pretending to be a vampire to impress the girl who is clearly obsessed with them. This last one may be unusual, but it's the one that AJ chooses when he and girl-of-his-dreams Nia are paired up to do a project on Transylvania. Things go really start to go wrong when AJ learns that vampires aren't only real, but vampire slayers are real too!

Gardner's debut graphic novel works with themes of friendship and finding oneself to create the feel of a traditional coming-of-age story, but throws in fantastical elements to keep readers on their toes and laughing along the way. The story is carried by three-dimensional characters and smooth dialog. Each scene works to either progress the plot or develop a relationship so this hefty book flies by. It is worth mentioning that character relationships are not only developed, but developed in a positive manner; the best example of this is AJ and his sister who will quarrel but still show their love and support for each other at the end of the day. This type of role model is essential as stories will often depict sibling rivalry to be the norm.

The story flows smoothly between ideas, refocusing attention from vampire investigation work to best friend fiascoes and then back again with ease as Gardner has a perfect marriage between illustration and text, conveying information more easily. The illustrations themselves are simplistic in design, but are given a great charisma by the characters and will easily engage many readers.
✓ Verified Purchase

More than vampires!

This book is about a boy who has a crush on a girl who loves...vampires. And the hijinx they get into are funny, especially the parts where AJ imagines him and Nia to be part of vampire stories he reads. Very cute! I highly recommend it!