Ninth Grade Slays: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod

This review is spoiler free except for mentioning some names of new characters.
(Edit: added three video links)

Some time ago I reviewed Eighth Grade Bites: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. It was the first book in a new series by Heather Brewer (known as "Auntie Heather" to her loyal minions*). The new book is out and is entitled Ninth Grade Slays: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod.

The new book, like the first, is a fast read. Ms. Brewer is a great writer, producing an engaging story but my complaints about this book are the same as the first: it's too damned short, and she's in a terrible hurry to get everywhere she's going. A plane flight from Siberia to the USA is dealt with in three sentences. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's a good chance to spend some time letting the character talk and getting to know more about them.

And she writes great characters and I do want to know lots more about them. Besides Vlad and Henry, we meet two new characters of import: Joss and Eddie. Eddie's last name is Poe and that made me smirk mightily. We also have more Meredith, but she's still a think character and we need to learn a lot more about her.

Joss, and this will be hard to do without uttering spoilers, is an amazing character and I wanted a whole book just about him. He's complex -- as complex as Vlad, no mean feat. And Ms. Brewer turns a great trick at the end with Joss, making me feel like someone kicked me in the stomach -- that or I'm coming down with the flu. Joss is the sort of character I'd like to spend an hour with over a cup of coffee, just talking.

Eddie, though only a bit player, has potential to be a big character in the next instalment(s). I get this nagging feeling that not only is important, but that one day he'll be a good friend to Vlad despite what we see in this book.

Otis and Nellie are in the book, but consigned to floating in and out of the story. That's not a criticism either. I much would prefer hearing about the kids because they're very interesting. Vlad cries a bit too much, and I think his circumstances have a lot to do with it. He's very Emo without actually being Emo. It makes sense to me, anyway.

Vlad is a great character. He continues to evolve and get more complex. I wish this book was about a hundred pages longer. Vlad continues to show signs of cuteness when he tries to interact with Meredith. And if he knew anyone thought he was showing such signs, he'd certainly cringe. In my previous reviews, I said a reader would want to be friends with Vlad and that remains even more true in this book.

TRAILER FOR THE NINTH GRADE BOOK (FLASH)



TRAILER FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE BOOK (FLASH)


TRAILER FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE BOOK (YouTube)
LIVE ACTION CLIP DONE BY A HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA CLASS

Download it from the school's website.

Tonight's Springsteen concert was cancelled so I was able to stay home and read the book cover to cover in just about two hours. Enjoyable as all hell. Highly recommended. I mean that sincerely. Auntie Heather has a MySpace page, which you should also join because she is very cool -- even though I never win one of her hoodies. I may have to just buy an XL one and be done with it. Hope spring eternal :)

Oh, and the end is a bit of a cliffhanger. Auntie Heather is evil.

(In worse news, on 3 May I was going to see Billy Crystal in concert in Las Vegas. That's been cancelled as well. I guess I should tell Austri....)


* I am proud to consider myself one of them.

Loch Ness Monster Finally Captured On Film (Serious. No Joke.)

First the Fox News report just so you can see this is real and is on almost every major and minor newswire there is. The Fox report above is one of about 200 matches in the past 48 hours with more appearing by the hour. The story is spreading rapidly, and it just made the front page of Earthlink's breaking news page (my home news page). If you just want the video without the commentary, CNN has an article with a link to the raw original footage which is even more convincing than the BBC edit.

As of right now, there is no doubt by any credible source that the film is real. In viewing the tape, all accounts indicate that there is no doubt it's an animal, and, as you will see, there's no doubt it's really big. The only real question is: what is it? There just aren't many options in this cold lake. It's not a fish or a bird. It's definitely serpentine in nature. There's some speculation it could be an enormously large eel -- possibly a world record holder if it is. The kicker is that it looks suspiciously similar to the world famous 1934 photo of Nessie (link is to Wikipedia article) as well as many more of the subsequent photos. If you go to Google Images you will find many more photos of the Loch Ness Monster, some clearly fake, others pretty believable.

The media, especially the local media in Scotland, is normally very skeptical of these type of monster stories but the footage is of such good quality that even the normally reticent BBC Scotland aired the video on its main news program on Tuesday. Here's that footage on You Tube.

This is one of those moments that might change history or might turn out to be another great disappointment. But it's believable enough for me to actually blog about it. The myth lives on regardless, skeptics claim no skeletons have ever been found. Believers point out that there have been sightings dating back to the year 565 and they're all disturbingly similar. I am deeply intrigued.