Reader Girls Blog

Reading level:  Ages 14 and up Hardcover:  352 pages Publisher:  HarperCollins; 1 edition (November 15, 2011) Blurb:  Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. My thou...

Sequential art: Manga Genre: YA paranormal Format: Paperback, 200 pages Published October 4th 2011 by VIZ Media (first published December 3rd 2010) Blurb:  Yuki is attacked by another pureblood outside a graveyard for meddling in the ways of the vampire society. Injured, she returns home to Kaname, who shares with her his past memories and the truth behind the Kuran family. My thoughts: Admissions, reemergence and revelations is what Volume 13 of Vampire Knight is all about. Zero goes to visit Ichiru's gravesite and has what I believe is one of his strongest moments of admission (besides the earlier prison cell scene with his brother). Zero admits to his twin his wondering if he has any part of his humanity left inside of him. In ghost form, Ichiru appears and says, "I exist inside you, Zero," in what starts off this installment with a poignant touch. Ichiru goes on to tell his sibling to "think objectively" and to "live and do what I cannot." I...

Sequential art:  Manga Genre:  YA paranormal Format: Paperback, 192 pages Published June 7th 2011 by VIZ Media LLC (first published July 5th 2010) Blurb: It's been one year since Yuki left Cross Academy with Kaname, and tonight is her first vampire soirée as a pureblood. Her best friend Sayori has snuck into the party to see her, but will Yuki and Zero be able to protect a human girl amid a bevy of vampires? My thoughts: My comments about Volume 11 lacking in direction also apply with this next installment. During the soiree Yuki is formally introduced to the vampires then senses Zero there. Finding him in the crowd, he causes a scene and is hurtfully cold to her. When the murder of a pureblood and the suicide of a hunter is revealed, the party ends (as all extravagant events in this series does).  Much emphasis is placed on pureblood Sara Shirabuki. She tries to take Yuki's human friend, Yori, away from the party but is stopped by Zero. After Zero takes the...

Sequential art: Manga Genre: YA paranormal Format: Paperback, 200 pages Published December 7th 2010 by VIZ Media LLC (first published December 4th 2009) Blurb: Ichijo wakes up and finds himself in the care of Sara Shirabuki, who saved his life after he tried sacrificing himself to kill Ichio. She asks him to tell her all he knows about Kaname... Yuki returns to the Kuran manor with Kaname, and he admits all of his past wrongdoings to her... After that there is a one year time-skip, and the focus changes to Zero, who saves a little girl from being kidnapped by some ex-human vampires... My thoughts: What has always attracted me to the Vampire Knight series--both the manga and then the anime--is Matsuri Hino's artwork . The emotions she captures on the faces of her three main characters--Yuki, Kaname and Zero--is outstanding, but her crafting of their story has been.... lacking. This has become obvious in this installment. After everything that happened in book ten, this ...