My Sister the Vampire, Books 1-7

Honestly, I can’t remember what happened in each individual My Sister the Vampire book and it’s hardly worth writing individual reviews. They’re relatively short and should ideally be read in order—each one picks up where the last left off. They’re cute and sweet and my daughter loves them.

My only complaint is that they’re so short. Other than that, I appreciate the relationship the girls have—it isn’t perfect or without tension, but they love each other despite of and because of their differences. Olivia is a perky vegetarian cheerleader and Ivy is a goth vampire with a penchant for rare meat, but they see the good aspects in each other, even if they don’t totally understand or embrace the other’s lifestyle. The boys in their lives are decent secondary characters who aren’t stupid plot devices. Olivia’s best friend is a proud sci-fi geek, a characteristic that isn’t played for laughs.

There isn’t exactly a ton of character development—the trouble-making characters will pretty much always make trouble—and some of the plots are rather predictable, but at the core is a message of acceptance, both of yourself and of the people you love. Secrets are central in many ways, but they don’t keep secrets from each other or from their parents for very long. Even when they’re nervous about telling the truth, it’s never as bad as they fear. I’ve mentioned my issues with secrets elsewhere, and these books feel like an antidote to that in some ways.

SPOILER ALERT: Things you might want to know before suggesting this to your kid

Family

Definitions of family are pretty open in this book. As the whole confusing situation comes to light, differences are embraced and celebrated. Perhaps it’s a little too neat and tidy, but I still like the example that’s set—the people who love the people you love are pretty much family.

Scariness

Despite the vampire theme, there’s no scariness to speak of. Perhaps a little tension early on, but it’s all diffused quickly. (Daughter update: she tells me that in Love Bites, she worried that one of the characters would harm Olivia. Turned out ok, though.)

Stereotypes

The kids break down into groups, as you tend to do, but there’s a lot of overlap. Olivia is a cheerleader and simply being a cheerleader is never looked down on. The main female antagonist is also a cheerleader and she’s a fairly typical mean girl, but Olivia helps mitigate the idea that all cheerleaders and popular girls are awful. Ivy is a goth, and overall the book portrays this group sympathetically. But our main male antagonists come from this group. They’re also fairly stereotypical idiotic trouble makers, but it’s interesting that Ivy has to look out for them to some extent because they’re part of her group. Olivia’s best friend is a geek, but she’s completely welcomed into the group of friends and her unique points of view are often useful and validated. Olivia’s boyfriend is a movie star (don’t ask), but underneath it all he’s a pretty normal kid (I guess that’s its own stereotype, but it still fits into the “don’t judge a book by its cover” mentality of the series.).

Honesty

Like any good twin book, Ivy and Olivia routinely switch places. They never get caught and there are rarely negative consequences. Secrets are a main theme, and the big one (the existence of vampires) is one that must be kept—even from Olivia’s parents and best friends—for many reasons. But most of the more normal secrets are kept for a blessedly short period of time, and there are few, if any, negative consequences to telling the truth and coming clean with your family and friends.

Recommendation

If you’re looking for a way to introduce your tween to classic vampires, this isn’t it. These vampires have no fangs (literally—they file them off). But the books are fun and cute without being insipid—good escapism for the 8 to 11 year old set. They might also be good for reluctant readers because they’re short but fun to read, and they don’t feel too much like little kid books.

I can’t get my hands on a new copy of book #8 for some reason (at least not without buying the first 7 again), but #9 & #10 are recently available through Scholastic—in fact, this seems like the easiest way to get the whole series, although this only really helps if you have a kid in a school that does Scholastic book orders.

Update: Some of the books are now available on Kindle.

My Sister the Vampire by Sienna Mercer
First one published in 2007 by HarperCollins
Series (more reviews here, here, and here – see here for a full  list of the series)
Read my daughter’s set up through #7

1. Switched

2. Fangtastic!

3. Re-Vamped!

4. Vampalicious!

5. Take Two

6. Love Bites

7. Lucky Break