Out for Blood. (The Drake Chronicles). Alyxandra Harvey. New York, NY: Walker & Company (Distributed in Canada by Penguin Canada), 2010. 292 pp., pbk., $12.50. ISBN 978-0-8027-2168-6. Subject Headings: Vampires-Fiction. Schools-Fiction. Grandfathers-Fiction. Dating (Social customs)-Fiction. Grades 9-12 / Ages 14-17. Review by Tanya Boudreau. *** /4

excerpt:

Blood.

So much blood, my fangs elongated past their usual battle-length. My gums ached. My throat ached. My veins ached. Hunger slid through me, weakening me like poison. And there was only one antidote.

Blood.

Kieran grimaced. “Do you smell that?”

I nodded and tried not to drool on myself. I had to clear my throat before I could speak properly. “Animal,” I said. “And…something else.”

“What, like hunters?”

I tracked the aroma, licking my lips only slightly.

Then I saw them.

“Not exactly,” I said, hunger fading. The bloodlust still had my nostrils twitching but I wasn’t thinking about a liquid supper anymore.”

The students at the Helios-Ra Academy kill vampires. Eighteen year-old Hunter Wild is one of their best students, but during her last year of school, she falls in love with someone her grandfather would want her to stake through the heart. Quinn Drake proves he’s more than a flirt though. When Hunter’s school is ambushed by the blue-skinned Hel-Blar vampires, he joins in the fight, and when students at the school come down with a mysterious illness, he asks a family member for help identifying the pills making the students sick. Characters from Hearts at Stake and Blood Feud, the first two books in “The Drake Chronicles” series, return in this story. Their roles are smaller, but Harvey provides new details about their lives to keep readers interested. The numerous attacks between the vampire tribes (one includes a new weapon called the ninja egg) are attributed to the insatiable desire for blood the Hel-Blar vampires are experiencing, but one of the real enemies in this story might come as a surprise to readers. It’s someone they trust from inside the school, and not a vampire from outside the school. Hunter may not be having a fun time during her last year of school, but when she’s not battling the enemy, she makes new friends, saves the life of her best friend, and proves to herself (and her teachers) she has what it takes to be a successful vampire hunter. Author Alyxandra Harvey, a graduate from York University, lives in Ontario. Teen girls looking for a new paranormal series should be introduced to “The Drake Chronicles.”

Recommended.

Tanya Boudreau is a librarian at the Cold Lake Public Library in Cold Lake, AB.

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