Sunday 8 January 2012

Book Review - Twelfth Grade Kills

Title: Twelfth Grade Kills
Author: Heather Brewer
Series: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod
Publisher: Speak
Release Date: 19 April 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0142417522

Synopsis
Vlad’s running out of time. The Elysian Council has given him weeks to live, and that’s if the Slayer Society doesn’t kill him – along with all the citizens of Bathory – first. Then there’s the issue of Vlad’s father, who may or may not still be alive after all these years, and oh yeah, that tiny little detail in the Pravus prophecy about Vlad enslaving Vampirekind and the human race. So much for college applications.
In this epic finale to Heather Brewer’s heart-stopping Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, dark secrets will be revealed, old friends will become enemies, and warm blood will run cold. Just be careful it isn’t yours.


My Review
Firstly, I didn't realize this was the last one in the series, I thought there would be more, this changes my opinion on it a bit concerning the ending, but I'll come back to that in a bit.
I started this series curious, and I enjoyed it but wasn't wowed, I kept coming back to it though, I couldn't seem to stay away and as each new book came out I found myself bringing it home from the library, it was the same with this one. I did think to myself 'do I really want to read it,  I have so much else to read." but I couldn't get myself to take it back. And I'm glad I didn't take it back. it has been a while since I read book four, so I had to try and remember who everyone was but I was soon back into the story, it looks like it continues from where the last book finished. 
Vlad is in his final year of school, but he's not sure he;ll see the end of it. Both the Elyssian council and the Slayers want him dead, if one doesn't do it the other will.
The storyline with his father was great, I wasn't sure how Brewer would bring him back, but she handled the plot very well and made it so everything made sense. I didn't think she could answer all the questions it would raise but she did.
I love that 'Snow' is back in this book, she's one of my favourite characters. I still think Nelly is fantastic too. There is a lot of mistrust and trickery in this book and I found it all very exciting, I read this in less than a day, and really enjoyed it.
There were a couple of points where I didn't think the author was making complete sense, things would happen and I would be like 'no that's not right, how does he/she do that?' then something else would happen and it would all make sense. It keeps you guessing throughtout.
This book does tie up a lot of lose ends and comes to a good conclusion, but then the very ending, the last chapter opens up a whole other can of worms, at the time of reading I was sure there would be another book in the series, but now I've found out that it's supposed to be the last one, I'm not as satisfied, i want to know what happens next, you can't finish with a sentence like that and not expect to come back to it, unless she is going to do another spin off series. I haven't read 'The Slayer' book yet, but it's on my list. Also the whole thing with Eddie wasn't completely solved, what happens to him?
So overall I'm in two minds about this, I did really enjoy the storyline but am now disappointed with the ending. I am still going to give it the rating I was originally, as I don't think it quite deserves an 'average', plus as one last thought it had a redeeming feature, on Page 99 it says this:
"Vlad wiped her lip gloss from his lips with the back of his hand. Vampires, after all, didn't sparkle."

LOL - FANTASTIC. Love it. This is what saves the rating, go Heather Brewer!!!

My Rating
    

No comments: