Vampire Dreams

SparkNotes Smart Novels

by SparkNotes

A thirst for blood, a taste for brunettes... and an unusually large vocabulary.

James Weston never wanted to be a vampire. He's fled his sinister mom and her murderous friends to start over as a tutor in Manhattan, the one place he can blend in. But when blood-drained bodies start to surface in his neighborhood, he fears that his own malevolent nature is taking control.

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 22, 2004

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Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a teenager named James who once was a human, but after when he found out his mom was a vampire, he became one of them.It started when one night he was scraped with a knife by 3 guys who wanted money from him,he tried to defend himself, but it didn't work.His mom couldn't take it anymore because she didn't want her son to be treated like this, so she turned him to a vampire,but then things change after few months.He moved to Manhattan and started out as a tutor.He needed human blood in order to survive, but he didn't want to kill innocent people.He was tutoring a teenager name Victoria who he fell in love with her, but scared that he would kill Victoria.

I can connect to this book with a text to text connection because this book relates to Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, that's about a vampire named Edward who fell in love with a human named Bella, but also scared that he would actually kill her.(Even though his family was a vegetarian who only drink animal blood).

I give this book 4 stars because it draws people's attention and also it kept my eyes on the book for like 3 hours, and read 5 chapters.This book was amazing!, but in the middle it was kind of boring so I kind of fell asleep, but I would had given it a 5.I recommend this book to people who wants to learn more advanced vocabulary, and the ones who read Twilight, can try reading this and learn more new vocabulary.

[Della Tingle · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the actual story was not the best, the vocabulary practice was! I bought this book to help my daughter prepare for taking the ACT. While, oftentimes, definitions can be wordy, there is none of that circumlocution here! This book adroitly and concisely provides 1000 vocabulary words as well as the definitions both on the pages where used as well as in a glossary at the back of the book. This is an atypical way to study, but I believe it to be meritorious!

circumlocution: wordiness
adroitly: skillfully
concisely: briefly or to the point
atypical: unusual
meritorious: good or praiseworthy

[Era Reid · Rating 1 out of 5]

this makes books on wattpad seem like literary masterpieces

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Karin Perry for TeensReadToo.com

James Weston never wanted to become a vampire. He didn't even know that his mother was one until the night she changed him without even asking. After waking up from the horrible experience of having his neck bitten and being forced to drink the blood of his mother, James began his education on being a vampire. His mother's friend, Alistair, took him to his estate and began his training along with two other newly-turned vampires named Susan and Adam. Susan seemed to understand James' reluctance to succumb to the freedoms of the vampire life, but Adam, on the other hand, was the exact monster that James envisioned a true vampire would be. James realized he couldn't fit into the life his mother and the others wanted for him so he decided to leave and hopefully disappear in New York City. James never wanted to be found.

Before being turned into a vampire, James had plans of becoming a doctor. He tried to attend classes, but realized it would be difficult with all the human blood he would come into contact with so he decided to give up the medical field and focus on plants. Even though he didn't need money since his father left him a sizable inheritance after his death, James usually had a couple of students he tutored each semester. That was how he met Victoria. The minute he saw her, his life changed. It had been five years since he left Alistair and the others and except for his cat, Solitaire, he didn't have any friends. Meeting Victoria made him realize he wanted companionship and someone to love. He just couldn't trust himself around her, which drove him crazy. Each time they got close he could smell the blood running through her veins and wanted to do nothing except bite her neck and taste her sweet blood.

Everything in New York was fine until a serial killer began to strike. He leaves his victims drained of blood, which leads the media to call him the Vampire Killer. On top of all of his feelings for Victoria and the Vampire Killer being on the loose, James thinks he sees Adam. Eventually his fears are confirmed when Adam starts hanging around Victoria. James is scared for Victoria's safety, but is caught between a rock and hard place because he can't tell her the truth about the reason Adam is dangerous. Life becomes even more hazardous for James when other people from his past find him and force him to face some unwanted truths.

VAMPIRE DREAMS: A SparkNotes SAT Vocabulary Novel is an interesting story even though it is a little forced at times because of trying to fit in all the difficult vocabulary. It didn't interrupt the flow of the story at all to look at the bottom of the page to check the definition of each of the boldface words that was used in the story. VAMPIRE DREAMS is a story not only for people studying for the SAT, but for everyone who is a fan of the vampire genre.

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reason why I was reading this book was to learn new vocabulary words to prepare for the SATs. However, this book was long, disorganized and boring. On the bottom of every page would be 1-10 SAT vocabulary words that did not help me remember at all. It was just annoying bobbing my head up and down to see what these vocabulary words meant. The story itself was "all over the place". I found myself re-reading pages so I can clearly understand what was going on.
This book was about a college senior who was bitten by his mother and turned into a vampire. The night after he turns into one, he learns that in order for a vampire to survive, he must kill a human. He cannot stand to live such a selfish and immoral lifestyle, so he runs away to a different city in hiding. I admit that there were certain points in the book where I got a little excited to see what would happen next, but that does not compare to how ridiculous this book was. Sorry Sparknotes; This didn't help me. Maybe you should make movie instead :).

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually pretty good! The only downside is that the author often threw in words that made me stop mid-sentence just to look up the mean of the word (they where at the bottom of the page in a gray box). I understand that this is the entire purpose of the novel; after all it is an SAT prep novel. But having to stop mid-way through the story really broke the flow and pacing of the book. Other than that, if you hated the characterization of the Twilight novels, then Vampire Dreams is the perfect remedy for you; James may be emo, but he has plausible reasons to be unlike a certain sparkle vampire.

[Lizzie♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows a good way to learn vocabulary and all while you enjoy a good book. Well this book tells the story of a boy named James and well he thought he had a normal life and it so turns out he doesn't. he later finds out that his mother, Angelica,is a vampire. He feels his world turned around ever since his mother changed him into one as well. He gets away from them since he doesn't want to kill people, but moves to Manhattan. He falls for a girl named Victoria where then he turns her into one of them. Read more to find out!

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was ok. I am glad to know that I knew most of the vocab listed!!! I thought the concept--vocab bolded within text and definitions at bottom of the page--was a little distracting but a good idea. I did like to look down to reassure myself that what I thought the word meant actually was right. I recommend it.

[Margie Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for my high school aged daughter to help her learn SAT words and this book is chockfull of vocabulary, which I personally happen to love. The story was good too. Read it in one day.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

being an SAT book it was okay considering they had to add 1000 SAT Words in it

[Lesly Marroquin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, it has enough romance for a girl to like but not to much to disgust you. i read this book in 6th grade and i feel in love with it because it was so good.