Tenth Grade Bleeds by Heather BrewerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Appropriately adorned with Pravus purple in its series title, series number, author name, and iconic fanged smiley, Tenth Grade Bleeds, the midpoint of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, proves to be one of the series' darkest, most emotionally damaging entries. Damaging not only for poor Vlad, but for we the readers as well, especially when we get firsthand glimpses of Vlad's tortured psyche. It gets to the point where he even commits self-harm as all his life stresses - Otis not being there for him, his friendship with Henry on the rocks due to the inherent inequality of their vamp-drudge power balance, missing Joss despite his betrayal, balancing his burgeoning romance with Meredith and his budding friendships with the goths, Eddie Poe being, well, Eddie Poe, and D'Ablo lurking around and sending another adversary after Vlad...
...oh, and the sheer indignity of high-school health class. Why my library puts this book in the middle-grade section instead of YA, I couldn't tell you.
Z Brewer here, once again, gives us a work of surprising genius. The novel is a collection of small moments, and some big action set pieces too, but all strung along on a connection worthy of the webs woven by a certain wall-crawler played by the likes of Maguire, Holland, and Garfield. Seriously, if you don't pick this series up and give it a shot...why not?
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