Youngblood

i dnf'd this at 37% & everything felt so slow like i was dragging through this book + the writing ugh it was just terrible-i'm goin to copy & paste multiple reviewers reviews on this book because they all sum it up

“ this was a slog to get through. I don't know if it was the writing style or the overall lack of plot but it took me So Long to get to the 30 or 40% at which I DNFed. The constant white saviour antics from the main character were painful to get through but the passing off British colonialism as being 'not that bad' “

“ if there's one thing that I hate it's poc and gay people being used as props so that the white mcs look like #activists. one of the biggest example is the mc complaining about the lack of diversit. my sister in christ you wrote the book. simply make it diverse and stop using us and our pain to make yall look good. and that little pro colonization paragrah wasn't eating. I could've lived a long life without seeing it “

“ There were unnecessary racist and homophobic remarks - all to prove the point that the main character, Kat, is a woke white person. She was the only one who cared that there were 7 black people in the school only to be responded with something along the lines of “why would any black kids come here when there are people like so and so talking about how much they lost during the civil war?”, she was the only one who cared when the L was teased for being gay, the only one who cared about social justice clubs, about how the main bad boy's mom was from pre-colonial India and his dad was from the British trading company - with said main guy stating “it wasn't like that.” It was all made to make it look like Kat was this amazing and good person because she got to hang out around humans growing up. “

First for foremost I want to thank Penguin Teen for an ARC of this book.

Okay, I was only 12% into Youngblood when I knew that I was going to LOVE it (and I was correct)!! This book was my first fantasy read of 2022 and fully resparked my love for vampire books all over again! I absolutely loved the writing style, character growth as well as ALL the characters. Yes, there were very annoying characters that I wanted to slap but that just makes it more real. I enjoyed all the side characters as well and fell absolutely in love with Kat, Taylor and Galen!

I do not want to spoil anything for Youngblood and I do recommend going into this book pretty blind. But here's what you need to know(read if you like): Vampires, boarding school, sapphic novels, making fun of Twilight, plot twists, cool and quirky teachers (I pictured Sikowitz from Victorious), bully trope (not entirely bully romance).