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Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society. 

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?


After seeing this series on the shevles of the library for months and months and months, I finally decided to read it. There's a bunch in the series, so I figured that if they turned out to be good then I would have something to keep me occupied for awhile.

It started out as a "Why on Earth did I choose this book?" kinda book. Not good. Pretty much, it got started off by introducing us to one main character, Schuyler Van Alen, but giving a huggeee back story and all sorts of information about her. And then I thought it would finally get started into some story-stuff, anddddd....... it switched perspectives. It did that for several chapters, introducing new characters with new POVs, huge info-dumps (especially describing their clothes and the name brands they were wearing), and just as I got interested it would switch.

Finally the story did start to pick up a bit, and some of the characters got interesting, such as Jack, Oliver and Bliss, although a few are downright intolerable. The idea behind the vampires in this story is quite fascinating. The way they work is something I've never heard or thought of before, and their history, which is mentioned in the prologue, was one of the few things that kept me reading. 

As far as characters and character relationships go, I was not to impressed. Schuyler, who was sort of the 'main' main character, was just odd. She didn't make any sense. All of the teens in this book belonged to a very prestigious private school in New York, and all are very very wealthy. Yet Schuyler acts like she's quite poor sometimes, but at the same time she doesn't. She flip flops between all sorts of different attitudes. Pick a personality and stick with it, girl! 

Mimi irked me to no end, as well. She was overly self-righteous and arrogant, and not in the way that makes a book interesting.

The POV shifts, were, however, interesting. I liked seeing different sides of the same story for this plot.

A few other things bothered me, too. The book took forever to getting around to the fact that many of the main characters were vampires. It kept dropping major hints and clues as if we didn't already know what they are, but if you so much as look at the cover or read the synopsis it's a complete giveaway. It was unnecessary foreshadowing for something that we already knew.

Also, there was whole paragraphs and pages entirely devoted to what characters were wearing. Sure, it's nice to get a sense of what a character looks like and how they dress, cause this can tell us a lot about them. But when every outfit they wear is described down to what brand their shoes are, it's not so interesting anymore. I ended up skipping (gasp!) some of these parts.

And then then ending was a complete let down. I know that since it's the beginning to a series, there would be some things left open and most likely some cliffhangers, but there was  absolutely nothing tied up and no answers given. I want to find out what happens, but at the same time, it was almost a complete waste and I don't want to spend my time reading another book if I might not like it when I could be reading something I know I will like. It was not satisfying.

Overall, this book was full of things that, for me at least, distracted from the book. Buuuuut, it also has a bunch of redeeming features. The history of the vampires, for instance, and the reason behind the name "Blue Bloods". (I don't want to say, because I'm not sure how spoilery it would be. Quite a bit, I think.) Plus the way the vampire society works and the fact that there's secrets and different sorts of mythology, tied in to some real history and some people-figures from long ago, and it was enough to keep me fascinated.

The Good: Concept, history, basis of the vampires
The Bad: Info-dumping, somewhat odd characters, unsatisfying ending.
The Verdict: 2 1/2 stars out of 5. 

Rachel

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