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Drain You
Every night I'd lie there in bed and look out at the hills behind our house, listening. I knew there'd be consequences. Actions meant reactions. Sunrises meant sunsets. My fear was too permanent, lasting longer than eyeliner, something I wore every day and didn't wash off. Quinlan Lacey's life is a red carpet of weird fashions, hip bands, random parties, and chilling by the pool with her on-and-off BFF Libby. There's also her boring job (minimum wage), a crushed-out coworker (way too interested), her summer plans (nada), and her parents (totally clueless). Then one night she meets gorgeous James, and Quinn's whole world turns crazy, Technicolor, 3-D, fireworks, whatever. But with good comes bad and unfortunately, Quinn's new romance brings with it some majorly evil baggage. Now, to make things right, she has to do a lot of things wrong (breaking and entering, kidnapping, lying, you name it). There's normal, and then there's paranormal, and neither are Quinlan's cup of Diet Coke. Staying sane, cool, in love, and alive isn't so easy breezy.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
5 people are currently reading
935 people want to read
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M. Beth Bloom
2 books43 followersAuthor of 'Drain You,' published by HarperTeen. Available everywhere July 24th.
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June 27, 2012
Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!
No.
Just no.
I think it's fair to say I hated this book. A lot. For a variety of reasons.
High hopes and huge disappointments - What are my two key emotions for this odd, disjointed and often off-putting supernatural endeavor called Drain You, Alex? It all sounds so good at first glance - a unique, quirky protagonist, evil vampires, a humorous and dry tone - but none, none of that lives up to expectations. The title is the most appropriate thing about the whole book: I felt the will to read drain out of me the more pages I turned. The "humor" here wasn't funny, the main character is one of the most unlikeable people I've ever had the misfortune to have to read about, there was no real presence of any tension in the novel, and the "plot" is MIA for the majority of the novel. It's a mess, and not a fun one.
If you don't like main character Quinlan, chances are high you are not going to like the rest of what Drain You has to offer. I hated Quinn. Hated, hated, hated, like I haven't disliked a fictional being in a loooong, long time. She's self-centered, selfish, rude, annoying, stupid, ungrateful, unthinking... I could go on and on with what's wrong with Quinn and her "characterization". Pages of my reading notes for this book are littered with things like: "WHAT did she just say?" "Why does she treat everyone around her like shit?" "Why am I supposed to care for a character that doesn't have the decency to warn other people when she is putting their lives and their entire families' lives!, in mortal danger?
And what else do I hate in YA novels besides dumb, superficial female protagonists? Instalove, and with a murderous, mysterious vampire! (How original! I've never read another YA paranormal book/series like that!) Be warned: Drain You has that hackneyed romantic element in spades. Quinn is astonishingly like the hated Bella in regards to her undead lover: they both consider their lives as "meaningless" when separated from their vampire boyfriends (in Quinn's case this is after knowing James less than three weeks' time. And her life is "meaningless" without him? GET A GRIP), they both fail to understand the danger of what they're involved in, they're both flat and dull girls who don't really know what they're getting into. Quinn is Bella - just with a "punk" twist and a much more liberal wardrobe. She even has the normal human boys that just can't help but fall in love with her! (and that she summarily rejects, uses, rejects, and then uses again. It's gross.)
Despite the (or maybe as a direct result of) complete lack of tension or suspense in the novel, I was majorly, majorly underwhelmed by both the final conflict and the denouement shown here. Maybe that's a direct result of the lack of plot, or antagonist presence but the end of the novel is flatter than the cardboard Quinn was made from. Either/or, it could go both ways because really neither the plot nor the villains play much into the storyline. The bulk of this disjointed, choppy narrative is devoted purely to all angst and emo and melodrama about how lonely and bored and cool poor little Quinn is, when really all she is is insufferable. Even when she is the direct cause of ALL THE PROBLEMS she faces with Morgan, Naomi. Whit and James, Quinn feels the most for...herself, takes no responsibility or ownership over the danger she puts everyone in. Not once. Fuck, I hated this character. GTFO.
Drain You was an entirely underwhelming disappointment, one I wish I had DNF'd halfway through. If I could tell past-Jessie "it doesn't get any better, any funnier, any cleverer" I would've set this down after Quinn decides two stalker-y nightwalks with a creepy, blood-covered boy constitute the beginning of a good relationship. No. Just no. Lots of potential, extremely poor execution is the final verdict on the mess that is Drain You.
No.
Just no.
I think it's fair to say I hated this book. A lot. For a variety of reasons.
High hopes and huge disappointments - What are my two key emotions for this odd, disjointed and often off-putting supernatural endeavor called Drain You, Alex? It all sounds so good at first glance - a unique, quirky protagonist, evil vampires, a humorous and dry tone - but none, none of that lives up to expectations. The title is the most appropriate thing about the whole book: I felt the will to read drain out of me the more pages I turned. The "humor" here wasn't funny, the main character is one of the most unlikeable people I've ever had the misfortune to have to read about, there was no real presence of any tension in the novel, and the "plot" is MIA for the majority of the novel. It's a mess, and not a fun one.
If you don't like main character Quinlan, chances are high you are not going to like the rest of what Drain You has to offer. I hated Quinn. Hated, hated, hated, like I haven't disliked a fictional being in a loooong, long time. She's self-centered, selfish, rude, annoying, stupid, ungrateful, unthinking... I could go on and on with what's wrong with Quinn and her "characterization". Pages of my reading notes for this book are littered with things like: "WHAT did she just say?" "Why does she treat everyone around her like shit?" "Why am I supposed to care for a character that doesn't have the decency to warn other people when she is putting their lives and their entire families' lives!, in mortal danger?
And what else do I hate in YA novels besides dumb, superficial female protagonists? Instalove, and with a murderous, mysterious vampire! (How original! I've never read another YA paranormal book/series like that!) Be warned: Drain You has that hackneyed romantic element in spades. Quinn is astonishingly like the hated Bella in regards to her undead lover: they both consider their lives as "meaningless" when separated from their vampire boyfriends (in Quinn's case this is after knowing James less than three weeks' time. And her life is "meaningless" without him? GET A GRIP), they both fail to understand the danger of what they're involved in, they're both flat and dull girls who don't really know what they're getting into. Quinn is Bella - just with a "punk" twist and a much more liberal wardrobe. She even has the normal human boys that just can't help but fall in love with her! (and that she summarily rejects, uses, rejects, and then uses again. It's gross.)
Despite the (or maybe as a direct result of) complete lack of tension or suspense in the novel, I was majorly, majorly underwhelmed by both the final conflict and the denouement shown here. Maybe that's a direct result of the lack of plot, or antagonist presence but the end of the novel is flatter than the cardboard Quinn was made from. Either/or, it could go both ways because really neither the plot nor the villains play much into the storyline. The bulk of this disjointed, choppy narrative is devoted purely to all angst and emo and melodrama about how lonely and bored and cool poor little Quinn is, when really all she is is insufferable. Even when she is the direct cause of ALL THE PROBLEMS she faces with Morgan, Naomi. Whit and James, Quinn feels the most for...herself, takes no responsibility or ownership over the danger she puts everyone in. Not once. Fuck, I hated this character. GTFO.
Drain You was an entirely underwhelming disappointment, one I wish I had DNF'd halfway through. If I could tell past-Jessie "it doesn't get any better, any funnier, any cleverer" I would've set this down after Quinn decides two stalker-y nightwalks with a creepy, blood-covered boy constitute the beginning of a good relationship. No. Just no. Lots of potential, extremely poor execution is the final verdict on the mess that is Drain You.
Want to read
December 14, 2011me while reading the synopsis ---> 
me after reading the publication date --->
me after reading the publication date --->
June 28, 2012
This review is also available over at my blog.
_____________________________
I really don't like not finishing ARCs, but this one was just too painful to finish.
I was expecting a lot from this book, but all I got was just teen angst and drama with some vampires thrown in there. I immediately disliked Quinn because, really, I couldn't find anything remotely likable about her. I tried to, but I just couldn't. She was annoying and self-absorbed and just plain unlikable. And she was also completely oblivious to all the weird things happening throughout the first few chapters.
There was one scene where she saw her best friend Libby's wrist being bitten by her vampire boyfriend, and it said that she saw how Libby was weakening and all, but she didn't do anything. She just drove on home without even being the least bit freaked out. Like, what the hell? If I were her, I would've jumped out of my car and ran over there, saying "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY BEST FRIEND YOU FUCKING PSYCHO?!" And I would've made sure she was okay and gotten her the hell out of there.
James, the love interest, was the typical mysterious vampire guy that I didn't really care for. Actually most of the characters in this book, I didn't really care for. I hate how they used "dude" way too much. "Like" and "cool" is understandable, but I don't think anyone uses "dude" THAT much nowadays. Like, it was so overused and it really just annoyed me.
The romance was ridiculous. Before it even reaches page 100, Quinn has decided that she's in love with James, and they barely even spend time together. After that I just stopped. I was planning on continuing, but there's nothing I hate more than insta-love, and that was my breaking point.
I think the only thing I liked about this book was the writing style. Well . . . Actually, no, I didn't really like it that much, either. It sort of reminded me of John Green's writing style, but with really bad characters.
This book might appeal to some people, but I personally couldn't stand continuing it due to the unlikable characters, nonsensical plot and facepalm-worthy insta-love. It has a very accurate title, though, because this book drained my interest.
A review copy of this book was sent to me by HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
_____________________________
I really don't like not finishing ARCs, but this one was just too painful to finish.
I was expecting a lot from this book, but all I got was just teen angst and drama with some vampires thrown in there. I immediately disliked Quinn because, really, I couldn't find anything remotely likable about her. I tried to, but I just couldn't. She was annoying and self-absorbed and just plain unlikable. And she was also completely oblivious to all the weird things happening throughout the first few chapters.
There was one scene where she saw her best friend Libby's wrist being bitten by her vampire boyfriend, and it said that she saw how Libby was weakening and all, but she didn't do anything. She just drove on home without even being the least bit freaked out. Like, what the hell? If I were her, I would've jumped out of my car and ran over there, saying "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY BEST FRIEND YOU FUCKING PSYCHO?!" And I would've made sure she was okay and gotten her the hell out of there.
James, the love interest, was the typical mysterious vampire guy that I didn't really care for. Actually most of the characters in this book, I didn't really care for. I hate how they used "dude" way too much. "Like" and "cool" is understandable, but I don't think anyone uses "dude" THAT much nowadays. Like, it was so overused and it really just annoyed me.
The romance was ridiculous. Before it even reaches page 100, Quinn has decided that she's in love with James, and they barely even spend time together. After that I just stopped. I was planning on continuing, but there's nothing I hate more than insta-love, and that was my breaking point.
I think the only thing I liked about this book was the writing style. Well . . . Actually, no, I didn't really like it that much, either. It sort of reminded me of John Green's writing style, but with really bad characters.
This book might appeal to some people, but I personally couldn't stand continuing it due to the unlikable characters, nonsensical plot and facepalm-worthy insta-love. It has a very accurate title, though, because this book drained my interest.
A review copy of this book was sent to me by HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
June 15, 2012
I enjoy vampire books. I read all kinds. From the sparkly vampires to the ruthless, bloodthirsty ones, vampire books are a guilty pleasure of mine. I was excited to get a review copy of this book and the synopsis seemed intriguing. Unfortunately, this book did not wow me.
I think that Drain You had the potential to be a good book, if not for the main character Quinlan Lacey. Quinlan is a 17 year old girl who spends a lot of time in her underwear or “barely there” clothing. She drinks so much Diet Coke that at one point I thought there was a product placement deal for the book. Quinlan “works” in a video store. Note the use of quotations marks – she doesn’t really work that much when she is at work.
I found myself hating Quinlan. She is self-absorbed, vapid, annoying, and rude.
Quinlan’s parents are idiots. This seems to be a regular theme in young adult books. Her parents are so busy in their own lives to pay any attention to their daughter. On a school night Quinlan leaves the house at 11PM and her father says “…be back whenever.” Huh? Not sure that would be realistic. Quinlan’s disdain for her parents is an ongoing theme. She asks her parents “Are you guys retarded?” Her mother “corrects” her and says, “We are not you guys, we’re mom and dad.” Huh? How does she get away with calling her parents retarded?
The stupidity was not limited to Quinlan’s parents. Quinlan was a little dense when the vampire James tells her he’s not safe. She thinks it’s because he is a heartbreaker. Later when James is covered in blood from his latest meal, Quinlan is concerned that he may be hurt. James’ sister Naomi, completely exasperated with Quinlan’s stupidity screams “He’s not hurt, you idiot, someone else is!”
There were a few other oddities in this book. Quinlan has her life’s “bucket list.” One item on her list was to marry Leonardo DiCaprio. Strange. Why would a 17 year old want to marry a 38 year old man? Justin Bieber, maybe. Leo is old enough to be her father.
Drain You did not work for me because I did not like the main character. Other readers may enjoy this book more than I did.
Thank you to Edelwiess and HarperTeen for a review copy of this book.
Review posted on Badass Book Reviews.
I think that Drain You had the potential to be a good book, if not for the main character Quinlan Lacey. Quinlan is a 17 year old girl who spends a lot of time in her underwear or “barely there” clothing. She drinks so much Diet Coke that at one point I thought there was a product placement deal for the book. Quinlan “works” in a video store. Note the use of quotations marks – she doesn’t really work that much when she is at work.
I found myself hating Quinlan. She is self-absorbed, vapid, annoying, and rude.
Quinlan’s parents are idiots. This seems to be a regular theme in young adult books. Her parents are so busy in their own lives to pay any attention to their daughter. On a school night Quinlan leaves the house at 11PM and her father says “…be back whenever.” Huh? Not sure that would be realistic. Quinlan’s disdain for her parents is an ongoing theme. She asks her parents “Are you guys retarded?” Her mother “corrects” her and says, “We are not you guys, we’re mom and dad.” Huh? How does she get away with calling her parents retarded?
The stupidity was not limited to Quinlan’s parents. Quinlan was a little dense when the vampire James tells her he’s not safe. She thinks it’s because he is a heartbreaker. Later when James is covered in blood from his latest meal, Quinlan is concerned that he may be hurt. James’ sister Naomi, completely exasperated with Quinlan’s stupidity screams “He’s not hurt, you idiot, someone else is!”
There were a few other oddities in this book. Quinlan has her life’s “bucket list.” One item on her list was to marry Leonardo DiCaprio. Strange. Why would a 17 year old want to marry a 38 year old man? Justin Bieber, maybe. Leo is old enough to be her father.
Drain You did not work for me because I did not like the main character. Other readers may enjoy this book more than I did.
Thank you to Edelwiess and HarperTeen for a review copy of this book.
Review posted on Badass Book Reviews.
January 25, 2012
This book is a laugh out loud kind of book! The main character is just priceless and she'll keep you laughing.
Quinlan is weird but in a good way. She is someone people are drawn to for some unknown reason. Quinn has a co-worker in love with her but she doesn't feel the same way and she has no idea how to break it to him lightly. Then she meets James who is mysterious and who walks her home without really walking with her. She is way too interested in him at first but doesn't question it just kind of goes with it. When she finds out what he is, she is freaked but she still is there for him. She then finds out more and more and to save the ones she loves she has to do something totally stupid and reckless.
When she meets James' brother Whit and their relationship is weird. Like I said Quinn draws them in without really meaning too, she has no idea what she feels for Whit but there is something and when she goes out against James' wishes and does something extremely stupid she has no idea what to do. With Whit she is a totally different person, kind of badass without realizing the consequences. But this book will keep you laughing and sometimes you have to stop to just take a break and let your stomach feel somewhat normal!
If you want a light, funny paranormal read this is your book!
Quinlan is weird but in a good way. She is someone people are drawn to for some unknown reason. Quinn has a co-worker in love with her but she doesn't feel the same way and she has no idea how to break it to him lightly. Then she meets James who is mysterious and who walks her home without really walking with her. She is way too interested in him at first but doesn't question it just kind of goes with it. When she finds out what he is, she is freaked but she still is there for him. She then finds out more and more and to save the ones she loves she has to do something totally stupid and reckless.
When she meets James' brother Whit and their relationship is weird. Like I said Quinn draws them in without really meaning too, she has no idea what she feels for Whit but there is something and when she goes out against James' wishes and does something extremely stupid she has no idea what to do. With Whit she is a totally different person, kind of badass without realizing the consequences. But this book will keep you laughing and sometimes you have to stop to just take a break and let your stomach feel somewhat normal!
If you want a light, funny paranormal read this is your book!
August 5, 2012
***ARC provided by Harper Teen for review***
She ignored me, sang more. “‘It is now my duty to completely drain you…’” Nirvana.
Drain You was nothing like what expected. Although I admit, I really had no idea what to expect with this book. The book summary is very vague, but it managed to intrigue me. Plus, I think the cover is pretty cool. Reminds me of a melted lollipop. I’ve never heard a Nirvana song before even though I LOVE rock. (I know, I know. Maybe I was scared that Courtney Love would chase me down and yell at me or something…)
When I first started reading Drain You, I had no idea what supernatural creatures it would be about. What is about werewolves, vampires, aliens? I had no clue although I was thinking for some reason that it would be about werewolves. I was surprised and a little annoyed when I eventually found out this was about vampires. But instead of your typical vampire story (I love you but I have to stay away from you because I want to drink your blood) this was more about the bad vampires versus the good vampires and Quinn is stuck in the middle. Oh and I just have to say that Quinn’s relationship with James had some of the hottest moments that I have ever read in a YA book. And her “friendship” with Morgan and Whit was so cute and funny and I’m very curious as to where this will lead to. (I put friendship in quotes because while they weren’t romantically involved, I don’t know what else to call it. I don’t even think Quinn knows what to call it…)
Yes, Drain You is another vampire story. I admit that if I would have known that, I probably wouldn’t have requested the book. But, now I’m glad that I didn’t know. Even though this is about vampires, it manages to be different from most vampire books. What I loved the most was the main character, Quinlan. I know most people hated her because she was a mess. But that was the main reason I liked her so much. Yes she was a big, huge mess and she had some issues, but she knew that. She was a bit selfish and self-centered and craved attention, but the fact that she didn’t pretend to be anything else made me really love her and I was really rooting for her to pull it together. Plus, she had the most insanely awesome fashion sense. Not that I would wear what she did, but she rocked it. I loved that the author described everything she wore and I couldn’t help but picture Ke$ha in my head. I know I probably just made you not like her with the way I described her but I couldn’t help but love the fact that she was a messed up character. The fact that she wasn’t perfect made her more realistic to me. Quinn was snarky, witty, sarcastic and freaking funny and at times I could not believe the things that would come out of her mouth.
One thing I am confused about is the time this book was set in. I’ve read some reviews that say it’s set in the 90’s because it has a lot of 90’s pop culture references and because of Quinn’s fashion style, but I kind of got the feeling that this book was set in the present day. Although the book was a bit slow in some parts and the ending totally left me reeling, I really enjoyed Drain You. It’s a darker YA book and although it is essentially about vampires, to me it was more about Quinn’s inner battle and her growth as a person. I really hope that there is a sequel to this book because the ending left me with a lot of questions. Don’t let the fact that this is another vampire book turn you off. Drain You was one of those rare books that I had absolutely no idea where it would take me to next and left me thinking “WTF” on more than one occasion which was refreshing.
4 out of 5 sparkly stars!
Favorite non-spoiler quotes from Drain You:
-I wasn’t wearing any pants, or shorts, or a skirt, just a shirt long enough to keep me decent. Underwear as outerwear, whatever.
-My taste in guys had gone from lame to dystopian.
-Then our lips locked, and we were making out. Majorly. He licked my teeth, my tongue, the shape of my mouth. I ran my hands through his messy hair. I threw the last bit of strength I had into it. I crushed his body against the Lexus, only slightly worried that it might leave a dent.
Could it get any better than this?
“Come home with me, will you?” James asked between kisses.
It could get better for sure.
-We rolled around awkwardly, knees and elbows bumping into walls and body parts while we stripped each other’s clothes off. It was amazing; not the suave seduction like I’d daydreamed but the very human foreplay between a girl and a boy.
-There is no getting ready to do the stupidest thing a person could ever do. So I did the only things I could do. I fastened twenty necklaces around my neck for armor, I drew on so much eyeliner I looked like a sobbing drunk raccoon on a tequila bender; I plowed through a third can of soda.
-“Tower Records and In-N-Out?” he asked, already halfway out the door.
“Whit, soon I won’t fit into any of my pants,” I whined.
“Like you wear pants.”
-That gave me more than ample time to scheme a story for my parents, float in the pool, put on more eyeliner, drink a Diet Coke or two, listen to a Fugazi tape, break into a good cry, fear for my life, then pull the whole mess together with a pair of party pants.
***
http://www.mostlyyabookobsessed.com/2...
She ignored me, sang more. “‘It is now my duty to completely drain you…’” Nirvana.
Drain You was nothing like what expected. Although I admit, I really had no idea what to expect with this book. The book summary is very vague, but it managed to intrigue me. Plus, I think the cover is pretty cool. Reminds me of a melted lollipop. I’ve never heard a Nirvana song before even though I LOVE rock. (I know, I know. Maybe I was scared that Courtney Love would chase me down and yell at me or something…)
When I first started reading Drain You, I had no idea what supernatural creatures it would be about. What is about werewolves, vampires, aliens? I had no clue although I was thinking for some reason that it would be about werewolves. I was surprised and a little annoyed when I eventually found out this was about vampires. But instead of your typical vampire story (I love you but I have to stay away from you because I want to drink your blood) this was more about the bad vampires versus the good vampires and Quinn is stuck in the middle. Oh and I just have to say that Quinn’s relationship with James had some of the hottest moments that I have ever read in a YA book. And her “friendship” with Morgan and Whit was so cute and funny and I’m very curious as to where this will lead to. (I put friendship in quotes because while they weren’t romantically involved, I don’t know what else to call it. I don’t even think Quinn knows what to call it…)
Yes, Drain You is another vampire story. I admit that if I would have known that, I probably wouldn’t have requested the book. But, now I’m glad that I didn’t know. Even though this is about vampires, it manages to be different from most vampire books. What I loved the most was the main character, Quinlan. I know most people hated her because she was a mess. But that was the main reason I liked her so much. Yes she was a big, huge mess and she had some issues, but she knew that. She was a bit selfish and self-centered and craved attention, but the fact that she didn’t pretend to be anything else made me really love her and I was really rooting for her to pull it together. Plus, she had the most insanely awesome fashion sense. Not that I would wear what she did, but she rocked it. I loved that the author described everything she wore and I couldn’t help but picture Ke$ha in my head. I know I probably just made you not like her with the way I described her but I couldn’t help but love the fact that she was a messed up character. The fact that she wasn’t perfect made her more realistic to me. Quinn was snarky, witty, sarcastic and freaking funny and at times I could not believe the things that would come out of her mouth.
One thing I am confused about is the time this book was set in. I’ve read some reviews that say it’s set in the 90’s because it has a lot of 90’s pop culture references and because of Quinn’s fashion style, but I kind of got the feeling that this book was set in the present day. Although the book was a bit slow in some parts and the ending totally left me reeling, I really enjoyed Drain You. It’s a darker YA book and although it is essentially about vampires, to me it was more about Quinn’s inner battle and her growth as a person. I really hope that there is a sequel to this book because the ending left me with a lot of questions. Don’t let the fact that this is another vampire book turn you off. Drain You was one of those rare books that I had absolutely no idea where it would take me to next and left me thinking “WTF” on more than one occasion which was refreshing.
4 out of 5 sparkly stars!
Favorite non-spoiler quotes from Drain You:
-I wasn’t wearing any pants, or shorts, or a skirt, just a shirt long enough to keep me decent. Underwear as outerwear, whatever.
-My taste in guys had gone from lame to dystopian.
-Then our lips locked, and we were making out. Majorly. He licked my teeth, my tongue, the shape of my mouth. I ran my hands through his messy hair. I threw the last bit of strength I had into it. I crushed his body against the Lexus, only slightly worried that it might leave a dent.
Could it get any better than this?
“Come home with me, will you?” James asked between kisses.
It could get better for sure.
-We rolled around awkwardly, knees and elbows bumping into walls and body parts while we stripped each other’s clothes off. It was amazing; not the suave seduction like I’d daydreamed but the very human foreplay between a girl and a boy.
-There is no getting ready to do the stupidest thing a person could ever do. So I did the only things I could do. I fastened twenty necklaces around my neck for armor, I drew on so much eyeliner I looked like a sobbing drunk raccoon on a tequila bender; I plowed through a third can of soda.
-“Tower Records and In-N-Out?” he asked, already halfway out the door.
“Whit, soon I won’t fit into any of my pants,” I whined.
“Like you wear pants.”
-That gave me more than ample time to scheme a story for my parents, float in the pool, put on more eyeliner, drink a Diet Coke or two, listen to a Fugazi tape, break into a good cry, fear for my life, then pull the whole mess together with a pair of party pants.
***
http://www.mostlyyabookobsessed.com/2...
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July 16, 2012LOVED. Read the full review, which includes my "Helpful 90s Glossary for the Tragically Young" on my blog. Just click on the link below.
Review of Drain You
My summary: Quinlan "Quinn" Lacey is a 1990s L.A. princess, an only child who sulks her way through shifts at the video store and torments her co-worker Morgan with her skimpy outfits and her refusal to acknowledge his infatuation. She's spoiled and bored, the VJ of her own MTV universe. One night after work, she spots a classmate, Naomi Sheets, crying by the side of the road. But when she meets James, Naomi's mysterious brother, Quinn has finally met her match. He's frustratingly unavailable, enigmatically aloof. But no one denies Quinn anything, so she sets out to have him, even if he's part of a sinister world of the undead.
My take: In the marketing copy on my ARC, Drain You is pitched as Twilight meets My So Called Life. While I do see the parallel between the Angela-Brian relationship in MSCL and the Quinn-Morgan one in Drain You, I'd call this book The Lost Boys meets Heathers. Like Heathers, Drain You is a black comedy. It wittily skewers overly permissive modern parenting, 80s slasher movies, and girl-meets-vampire stories, among other things.
Main character Quinn is quite the piece of work. More Rayanne than Angela, she's gloriously self-centered, eager to keep Morgan slavering over her while simultaneously wrapping vampire James and his non-vamp brother Whit around her little finger. Quinn's relationship issues may not be entirely her fault -- her affluent parents raise her with benign neglect, communicating with her through cheery, passive-aggressive little notes as they social-climb their way through the L.A. party scene.
I enjoyed Drain You so much that I didn't even need a plot, but there is one involving a pair of evil vampire twins, hilariously nicknamed "the Spaders" by Quinn. The Spaders are vampires by choice who enslave Quinn's best friend Libby, necessitating a somewhat farfetched kidnapping plot and a gruesomely comic scene involving drain cleaner that comes straight out of Heathers.
If you have 90s nostalgia, this is HIGHLY recommended.
Review of Drain You
My summary: Quinlan "Quinn" Lacey is a 1990s L.A. princess, an only child who sulks her way through shifts at the video store and torments her co-worker Morgan with her skimpy outfits and her refusal to acknowledge his infatuation. She's spoiled and bored, the VJ of her own MTV universe. One night after work, she spots a classmate, Naomi Sheets, crying by the side of the road. But when she meets James, Naomi's mysterious brother, Quinn has finally met her match. He's frustratingly unavailable, enigmatically aloof. But no one denies Quinn anything, so she sets out to have him, even if he's part of a sinister world of the undead.
My take: In the marketing copy on my ARC, Drain You is pitched as Twilight meets My So Called Life. While I do see the parallel between the Angela-Brian relationship in MSCL and the Quinn-Morgan one in Drain You, I'd call this book The Lost Boys meets Heathers. Like Heathers, Drain You is a black comedy. It wittily skewers overly permissive modern parenting, 80s slasher movies, and girl-meets-vampire stories, among other things.
Main character Quinn is quite the piece of work. More Rayanne than Angela, she's gloriously self-centered, eager to keep Morgan slavering over her while simultaneously wrapping vampire James and his non-vamp brother Whit around her little finger. Quinn's relationship issues may not be entirely her fault -- her affluent parents raise her with benign neglect, communicating with her through cheery, passive-aggressive little notes as they social-climb their way through the L.A. party scene.
I enjoyed Drain You so much that I didn't even need a plot, but there is one involving a pair of evil vampire twins, hilariously nicknamed "the Spaders" by Quinn. The Spaders are vampires by choice who enslave Quinn's best friend Libby, necessitating a somewhat farfetched kidnapping plot and a gruesomely comic scene involving drain cleaner that comes straight out of Heathers.
If you have 90s nostalgia, this is HIGHLY recommended.
March 31, 2012
The synopsis made it sound like an awesome book, but I just couldn't get into it at all. The first person writing and the way the characters talk were ridiculous. I get they are teenagers, but they overused, Dude, Like, and Cool to the point were I was just rolling my eyes every time it came up, and it came up A LOT, so it made it kinda hard to read with all the eye rolling. It was all very choppy and the relationships with her friends all fell flat. And then there was the Undead guys, which was obvious who they were as soon as they get described, and the MC is so completely blind to it all, like it's perfectly normal...The crap she sees in just the first 50 pages and she just doesn't say anything to anyone or thinks it's perfectly normal. I don't know how finding a girl crying hysterically with blood on her hands could possibly be considered normal. The MC's thoughts about this? None..except lusting after the girl's brother. She doesn't even wonder how she could have gotten blood or why she was crying. The girl then gives her a BS excuse and she doesn't question it at all cause she is too busy thinking about the girl's brother. Couldn't finish this book, and I doubt I'll ever even want to finish it.
July 23, 2012
Drain You by M. Beth Bloom has such a cool cover and intriguing premise that I went into expecting a chilling, refreshing vampire story. What I got was a predictable, trite, hot mess of a story!
Quinn Lacey’s life isn’t exactly exciting, even if her BFF is the daughter of a famous rockstar. She thinks her summer will be spent at her boring job at the video store, hanging by the pool, partying with her BFF, obsessing over music, avoiding her clueless parents and keeping her way-too-interested co-worker at bay. But then she meets handsome, mysterious James and her summer suddenly becomes anything but boring. Quinn and James fall for each other fast, but James comes with a lot of baggage…the kind of baggage that could get a girl killed. James is a vampire and he isn’t the only one in town. When her BFF Libby becomes entangled with a group of dangerous vampires, Quinn must try and save her, but her plans are thwarted when James leaves for her own good. Thank goodness James’s cute, helpful brother Whit comes to town. But James isn’t gone for long and the whole gang finds themselves in danger.
Drain You certainly has its entertaining elements (good music, a fun time period setting and a cute boy in tortoise-shell glasses), but it also suffers from a tired storyline, flat characters, eye-roll inducing romance and a lackluster plot.
The exact year that this story takes place is never given, but there are enough clues and details given to deduce that it takes place in the mid-late nineties. As a child of the 90’s myself, I really liked the fun flashback to my own early teen years. Quinn is quite the music lover and there’s some really awesome music discussed and lyrics used throughout the story. I also think that this time setting has the potential to create a refreshing vampire story because it takes place before the big “vampire trend” in pop culture, allowing for a more gritty and less romanticized story than we’re used to in YA…unfortunately, this doesn’t happen.
**I’m going to talk about the basic overall storyline so there may be spoilers**
The story in this book follows a very predictable and overused storyline: loner/not-really-popular teen girl meets mysterious hot guy, they fall in love, she finds out he’s a dangerous vampire/werewolf/angel/shifter/fairy/alien/mer/unicorn/cupcake-in-disguise/etc., she loves him too much too care, they get hot and heavy, he leaves for “her own good”, she is comforted by the sweet-always-there BFF-guy but is too in love with the “bad boy” who left to love the good guy until one day she actually realizes that Hey! Maybe my sweet, caring, respectful BFF would be an awesome boyfriend, but of course by then the first guy comes back and ruins that smart line of thinking and then a bunch of other stuff happens, usually a bad guy or two show ups and the hunky boyfriend must save the heroine, and finally the book ends…
Whew (did you read that in one big breathe because I did while writing it?!) Yeah, we all know the plotline well and Drain You follows it closely and doesn’t really add anything new or original to shake things up or set it apart. While reading this book I just kept thinking I’ve read this a hundred times before. The names and settings may have been different, but the song is the same.
The predictability of the storyline could have been ignored if the main characters were engaging, likable and well-developed. Most of them aren’t. Quinn’s characterization and development were kind of all over the place in this book. I actually really liked her in the beginning; she was snarky, witty and flawed and damaged in an intriguing way. But, instead of growing throughout the book she actually regresses until, by the end of the book, she’s a selfish, thoughtless, needy, whiny, dependent, pathetic puddle of our once-likable heroine. And why does this happen? One word: James.
James- the mysterious, hot, too cool for school vampire. James is not a sparkly, vegetarian vampire (which is a good thing); he’s a bloodthirsty, human draining vampire. He kills people just to keep himself fed and as a reader I needed a reason to like him despite this, a reason to believe that Quinn’s love for him is ok despite his murderous ways. This reason never appears and to makes things worse James is a flat, dull, barely developed character. He’s there (being slightly creepy and stalkerish), then he isn’t, then he is, and I could have cared less about him the whole time.
And the romance between these two is unbearably insta-love. There is absolutely no development or evolution to their relationship; they go from strangers to so in love lovers quickly. Too quickly. And after the two share a night of intimacy, James decides that he must leave for a little while, for her own good *insert me rolling my eyes*. But his absence does bring my favorite character into this picture…
Whit, James’s brother, is the one shining gem among this group of dull characters. I loved Whit’ humor, his glasses, his taste in music and movies, his compassion and thoughtfulness. Whit quickly becomes Quinn’s new BFF and for a brief time he brings out the Quinn I liked in the beginning of the book.
The antagonists were equally disappointing. From the premise, I was expecting a horde of bloodthirsty vampires, when really all we got is four, preppy, asshat vampires. Did they do “bad guy” things? Sure. Were they intriguing or exude a captivating villainy? Not really.
There’s a definite tension between these baddies and our heroine and her boys, tension that does lead to a climatic event, but there’s very little action. And the conclusion is quite abrupt and left me very confused and let down.
I must mention a few other things that either confused or distracted me:
· *The overuse of the word like. This words was, like, used in, like, every other sentence of, like, dialogue…I’m not exaggerating. It got to the point where I had to skip over this word because I couldn’t stand to read it anymore.
· *James, Whit and their sister Naomi all wear a gold chain with a small gold cross and Quinn mentions these often but no explanation as to their significance is given.
· * The author often spends an entire page or two just describing what Quinn is wearing.
· * The lack of parental…anything? Quinn stays out all night and walks home alone at night after work and her parents are totally okay with this?!
· * Quinn is a music buff and lover but she doesn’t know who Robert Plant is or recognize Led Zeppelin lyrics…not cool >_<
· * Diet Coke! Quinn drinks SO much Diet Coke; seriously, she’s drinking a can almost every three pages or so. By the end of the book, even my bladder was full and I had nothing to drink.
And then there are several excerpts I want share:
· “Empty windows of nothingness punctuated by meaningless details involving totally mundane nonevents.”…I know break-ups are hard, especially when you’re a teen, but this is just way too overwrought and dramatic for me to take Quinn seriously.
· “My pocket was empty. My heart was emptier.”…sounds more like a country song than something a teen would say.
· “I couldn’t sleep until I eventually fell asleep…”…umm, thanks for that clarification?
MY FINAL THOUGHTS: Drain You was too predictable, too trite, too full of insta-love and lackluster characters for me to truly enjoy it. If you’re looking for an exciting vampire story then this one isn’t for you.
Quinn Lacey’s life isn’t exactly exciting, even if her BFF is the daughter of a famous rockstar. She thinks her summer will be spent at her boring job at the video store, hanging by the pool, partying with her BFF, obsessing over music, avoiding her clueless parents and keeping her way-too-interested co-worker at bay. But then she meets handsome, mysterious James and her summer suddenly becomes anything but boring. Quinn and James fall for each other fast, but James comes with a lot of baggage…the kind of baggage that could get a girl killed. James is a vampire and he isn’t the only one in town. When her BFF Libby becomes entangled with a group of dangerous vampires, Quinn must try and save her, but her plans are thwarted when James leaves for her own good. Thank goodness James’s cute, helpful brother Whit comes to town. But James isn’t gone for long and the whole gang finds themselves in danger.
Drain You certainly has its entertaining elements (good music, a fun time period setting and a cute boy in tortoise-shell glasses), but it also suffers from a tired storyline, flat characters, eye-roll inducing romance and a lackluster plot.
The exact year that this story takes place is never given, but there are enough clues and details given to deduce that it takes place in the mid-late nineties. As a child of the 90’s myself, I really liked the fun flashback to my own early teen years. Quinn is quite the music lover and there’s some really awesome music discussed and lyrics used throughout the story. I also think that this time setting has the potential to create a refreshing vampire story because it takes place before the big “vampire trend” in pop culture, allowing for a more gritty and less romanticized story than we’re used to in YA…unfortunately, this doesn’t happen.
**I’m going to talk about the basic overall storyline so there may be spoilers**
The story in this book follows a very predictable and overused storyline: loner/not-really-popular teen girl meets mysterious hot guy, they fall in love, she finds out he’s a dangerous vampire/werewolf/angel/shifter/fairy/alien/mer/unicorn/cupcake-in-disguise/etc., she loves him too much too care, they get hot and heavy, he leaves for “her own good”, she is comforted by the sweet-always-there BFF-guy but is too in love with the “bad boy” who left to love the good guy until one day she actually realizes that Hey! Maybe my sweet, caring, respectful BFF would be an awesome boyfriend, but of course by then the first guy comes back and ruins that smart line of thinking and then a bunch of other stuff happens, usually a bad guy or two show ups and the hunky boyfriend must save the heroine, and finally the book ends…
Whew (did you read that in one big breathe because I did while writing it?!) Yeah, we all know the plotline well and Drain You follows it closely and doesn’t really add anything new or original to shake things up or set it apart. While reading this book I just kept thinking I’ve read this a hundred times before. The names and settings may have been different, but the song is the same.
The predictability of the storyline could have been ignored if the main characters were engaging, likable and well-developed. Most of them aren’t. Quinn’s characterization and development were kind of all over the place in this book. I actually really liked her in the beginning; she was snarky, witty and flawed and damaged in an intriguing way. But, instead of growing throughout the book she actually regresses until, by the end of the book, she’s a selfish, thoughtless, needy, whiny, dependent, pathetic puddle of our once-likable heroine. And why does this happen? One word: James.
James- the mysterious, hot, too cool for school vampire. James is not a sparkly, vegetarian vampire (which is a good thing); he’s a bloodthirsty, human draining vampire. He kills people just to keep himself fed and as a reader I needed a reason to like him despite this, a reason to believe that Quinn’s love for him is ok despite his murderous ways. This reason never appears and to makes things worse James is a flat, dull, barely developed character. He’s there (being slightly creepy and stalkerish), then he isn’t, then he is, and I could have cared less about him the whole time.
And the romance between these two is unbearably insta-love. There is absolutely no development or evolution to their relationship; they go from strangers to so in love lovers quickly. Too quickly. And after the two share a night of intimacy, James decides that he must leave for a little while, for her own good *insert me rolling my eyes*. But his absence does bring my favorite character into this picture…
Whit, James’s brother, is the one shining gem among this group of dull characters. I loved Whit’ humor, his glasses, his taste in music and movies, his compassion and thoughtfulness. Whit quickly becomes Quinn’s new BFF and for a brief time he brings out the Quinn I liked in the beginning of the book.
The antagonists were equally disappointing. From the premise, I was expecting a horde of bloodthirsty vampires, when really all we got is four, preppy, asshat vampires. Did they do “bad guy” things? Sure. Were they intriguing or exude a captivating villainy? Not really.
There’s a definite tension between these baddies and our heroine and her boys, tension that does lead to a climatic event, but there’s very little action. And the conclusion is quite abrupt and left me very confused and let down.
I must mention a few other things that either confused or distracted me:
· *The overuse of the word like. This words was, like, used in, like, every other sentence of, like, dialogue…I’m not exaggerating. It got to the point where I had to skip over this word because I couldn’t stand to read it anymore.
· *James, Whit and their sister Naomi all wear a gold chain with a small gold cross and Quinn mentions these often but no explanation as to their significance is given.
· * The author often spends an entire page or two just describing what Quinn is wearing.
· * The lack of parental…anything? Quinn stays out all night and walks home alone at night after work and her parents are totally okay with this?!
· * Quinn is a music buff and lover but she doesn’t know who Robert Plant is or recognize Led Zeppelin lyrics…not cool >_<
· * Diet Coke! Quinn drinks SO much Diet Coke; seriously, she’s drinking a can almost every three pages or so. By the end of the book, even my bladder was full and I had nothing to drink.
And then there are several excerpts I want share:
· “Empty windows of nothingness punctuated by meaningless details involving totally mundane nonevents.”…I know break-ups are hard, especially when you’re a teen, but this is just way too overwrought and dramatic for me to take Quinn seriously.
· “My pocket was empty. My heart was emptier.”…sounds more like a country song than something a teen would say.
· “I couldn’t sleep until I eventually fell asleep…”…umm, thanks for that clarification?
MY FINAL THOUGHTS: Drain You was too predictable, too trite, too full of insta-love and lackluster characters for me to truly enjoy it. If you’re looking for an exciting vampire story then this one isn’t for you.
July 11, 2012
Rating: Eye-Catcher
Source: Won from publisher via Goodreads
A ridiculously pointless story
You guys, Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is four hundred pages of wasted time. And you know how sometimes when you’re doing pointless, wasteful things you’re pretty entertained but you also know that you could be doing something way more useful, interesting, and fulfilling with your time? That’s exactly what reading Drain You by M. Beth Bloom felt like. At points, there are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, but mostly it’s a silly, structure-less story with a rather disturbing main character, bland love interest, and an even terribly stranger slew of secondary characters who are supposed to act as friends and family. At times it was easy to get confused by the overly expressive writing style that talked about too many things at once.
At the root of it all, Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is a dated paranormal book with awful Twilight qualities. It’s a useless, meaningless story that gave me a few laughs, sure, but bored me to skimming for most of it. I had to take several breaks from the story and then talk myself into jumping back in to the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
Some people might enjoy it
Let’s get something straight—I’m an avid paranormal romance reader. Vampires, witches, faeries, you name it, I’m excited. I’m also REALLY into Twilight—ask anyone that knows me. So of course I was thrilled to see Drain You by M. Beth Bloom pitched as a cross between a popular 90s show and Twilight, and yet it seemed to have taken characteristics of both and created a horribly unusual mess with them. The story is a pale, ludicrous imitation of either reference. Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is one of those novels that can force you into being tired of the vampire trend, that reminds you why you despise instalove (James is DEFINITELY not Edward Cullen material). It seems as if the story was written in the moment as a way to pass the time. There’s no structure to the story, everything is as lax and disjointed as the main character, Quinn, who disturbed me and annoyed me more than anything else.
But, if you’re into the kind of a story that has pops of humor and has no sense of order to the plot, then this might be more your style. Drain You by M. Beth Bloom basically chronicles Quinn hanging out with herself, odd people who eventually become her friends, and the romance—if you can actually call it that—between her and this mysterious (creepy) vampire who strolls into her life at random moments.
Some may like Quinn, enjoy her humor and appreciate her oddness. I, however, was frustrated with her as well as the rest of the senseless story.
Bottom line
It was a VERY impressively difficult struggle to get through this book. What’s more intriguing about this, however, is how and why I actually managed to completely read it. I will cop to skimming several pages at a time, but not enough where I missed out on something major—which, to me, demonstrates how unnecessary a lot of the story is. But, yes, I finished this book and it’s still a bit of a shock to me, because normally reads like this are quickly and happily DNFed.
And yet, I can’t explain what propelled me to continue. Maybe it was because of the humor or maybe simply because I didn’t want to stop after getting so far into it. Or maybe it did hold some level of interest for me. Ultimately, though, the ending is as disappointing and pointless as the rest of it. I unrepentantly declare Drain You by M. Beth Bloom a giant waste of my time.
Also reviewed at Girls Who Fly »
Source: Won from publisher via Goodreads
A ridiculously pointless story
You guys, Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is four hundred pages of wasted time. And you know how sometimes when you’re doing pointless, wasteful things you’re pretty entertained but you also know that you could be doing something way more useful, interesting, and fulfilling with your time? That’s exactly what reading Drain You by M. Beth Bloom felt like. At points, there are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, but mostly it’s a silly, structure-less story with a rather disturbing main character, bland love interest, and an even terribly stranger slew of secondary characters who are supposed to act as friends and family. At times it was easy to get confused by the overly expressive writing style that talked about too many things at once.
At the root of it all, Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is a dated paranormal book with awful Twilight qualities. It’s a useless, meaningless story that gave me a few laughs, sure, but bored me to skimming for most of it. I had to take several breaks from the story and then talk myself into jumping back in to the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
Some people might enjoy it
Let’s get something straight—I’m an avid paranormal romance reader. Vampires, witches, faeries, you name it, I’m excited. I’m also REALLY into Twilight—ask anyone that knows me. So of course I was thrilled to see Drain You by M. Beth Bloom pitched as a cross between a popular 90s show and Twilight, and yet it seemed to have taken characteristics of both and created a horribly unusual mess with them. The story is a pale, ludicrous imitation of either reference. Drain You by M. Beth Bloom is one of those novels that can force you into being tired of the vampire trend, that reminds you why you despise instalove (James is DEFINITELY not Edward Cullen material). It seems as if the story was written in the moment as a way to pass the time. There’s no structure to the story, everything is as lax and disjointed as the main character, Quinn, who disturbed me and annoyed me more than anything else.
But, if you’re into the kind of a story that has pops of humor and has no sense of order to the plot, then this might be more your style. Drain You by M. Beth Bloom basically chronicles Quinn hanging out with herself, odd people who eventually become her friends, and the romance—if you can actually call it that—between her and this mysterious (creepy) vampire who strolls into her life at random moments.
Some may like Quinn, enjoy her humor and appreciate her oddness. I, however, was frustrated with her as well as the rest of the senseless story.
Bottom line
It was a VERY impressively difficult struggle to get through this book. What’s more intriguing about this, however, is how and why I actually managed to completely read it. I will cop to skimming several pages at a time, but not enough where I missed out on something major—which, to me, demonstrates how unnecessary a lot of the story is. But, yes, I finished this book and it’s still a bit of a shock to me, because normally reads like this are quickly and happily DNFed.
And yet, I can’t explain what propelled me to continue. Maybe it was because of the humor or maybe simply because I didn’t want to stop after getting so far into it. Or maybe it did hold some level of interest for me. Ultimately, though, the ending is as disappointing and pointless as the rest of it. I unrepentantly declare Drain You by M. Beth Bloom a giant waste of my time.
Also reviewed at Girls Who Fly »
August 9, 2012
Not being over the whole vampire theme yet, I really expected to love this one, but unfortunately, that wasn't to be.
First off, we have the horrid insta love. Quinlan sees James outside the video store and he follows her home and that's the start of it, just like that, she's can't stop thinking about him and is in love in less than a week with James apparently unable to stay away from her either. Until they do the deed and then he disappears just leaving a note telling Quinlan he'll be back. And we never do find out the real reason why he disappears.
With his departure, enter With, James human brother. I thought we might be heading for a love triangle here, but no, instead, we had insta best friends. He apparently knows where James is yet he doesn't tell Quinlan and she doesn't ask!!
Then we have the childhood best friend Libby, who Quinlan seems to have very little interest in, until she decides to risk everyone's life to save her from the vampires. But when she sees him sucking on her wrist and Libby nearly passed out, she just goes home thinking "whatever she's into!!" And the guy who crushes on Quinlan for some reason that I can't fathom, she just treats him like crap constantly, taking him for granted, and putting the lives of him and his family at risk too. And she knows she treats him badly because she keeps saying it to herself.
The characters in this were very one dimensional. Quinlan is not a likable character at all, she's just selfish and uses people for her own good constantly. Which is why the big rescue of Libby is totally out of character. James, being the vampire, did have his mysterious side, but once you got over that, he wasn't that exciting either, but yet the book took a downward spiral after he left. And he doesn't change his clothes, what's with that. Ok, I get that he's a vampire, who doesn't sweat and smell like humans do, but, surely he'd still get dirty.
I'm afraid I didn't like this authors writing style at all and at times I found the dialogue confusing. And there was just far too much use of the word "dude", which just drove me mad. Maybe, in LA, this is how people speak, I don't know?
And the ending was just unbelievable. The book just stopped. I don't like open endings, I like a neat finish, but I don't know if I would even call this an open ending, there was just too many things left unanswered, too many ways that things could have went. I asked the author if there was a sequel, and she said there was nothing planned at the moment, but if the fans wanted one, then yes. I feel like she didn't finish this one with the express purpose that "fans" would need a sequel just to get some closure. After speaking about the ending with the author, I've deducted a star because it just didn't feel right. As much as I wanted to know how things were ending, I wouldn't read a sequel.
First off, we have the horrid insta love. Quinlan sees James outside the video store and he follows her home and that's the start of it, just like that, she's can't stop thinking about him and is in love in less than a week with James apparently unable to stay away from her either. Until they do the deed and then he disappears just leaving a note telling Quinlan he'll be back. And we never do find out the real reason why he disappears.
With his departure, enter With, James human brother. I thought we might be heading for a love triangle here, but no, instead, we had insta best friends. He apparently knows where James is yet he doesn't tell Quinlan and she doesn't ask!!
Then we have the childhood best friend Libby, who Quinlan seems to have very little interest in, until she decides to risk everyone's life to save her from the vampires. But when she sees him sucking on her wrist and Libby nearly passed out, she just goes home thinking "whatever she's into!!" And the guy who crushes on Quinlan for some reason that I can't fathom, she just treats him like crap constantly, taking him for granted, and putting the lives of him and his family at risk too. And she knows she treats him badly because she keeps saying it to herself.
The characters in this were very one dimensional. Quinlan is not a likable character at all, she's just selfish and uses people for her own good constantly. Which is why the big rescue of Libby is totally out of character. James, being the vampire, did have his mysterious side, but once you got over that, he wasn't that exciting either, but yet the book took a downward spiral after he left. And he doesn't change his clothes, what's with that. Ok, I get that he's a vampire, who doesn't sweat and smell like humans do, but, surely he'd still get dirty.
I'm afraid I didn't like this authors writing style at all and at times I found the dialogue confusing. And there was just far too much use of the word "dude", which just drove me mad. Maybe, in LA, this is how people speak, I don't know?
And the ending was just unbelievable. The book just stopped. I don't like open endings, I like a neat finish, but I don't know if I would even call this an open ending, there was just too many things left unanswered, too many ways that things could have went. I asked the author if there was a sequel, and she said there was nothing planned at the moment, but if the fans wanted one, then yes. I feel like she didn't finish this one with the express purpose that "fans" would need a sequel just to get some closure. After speaking about the ending with the author, I've deducted a star because it just didn't feel right. As much as I wanted to know how things were ending, I wouldn't read a sequel.
January 7, 2016
Well this was a disappointment. I went into this one a little apprehensive as it doesn't have the best ratings and I haven't had much luck with teen vampire tales of late and unfortunately this one was no exception.
I really really didn't like our main character of Quinn. She was so so so selfish! But at the same time she was so aware of her selfishness and yet she just didn't care. I really couldn't stand her. She treats Morgan horribly!! Parts of the story with her interacting with Morgan were probably my least favourite and yet Morgan was such a glutton for punishment that I had trouble feeling sorry for him.
I didn't mind the romance in this story overall but I did have a real problem that Quinn wasn't in the least concerned that James literally kills innocent people...!
What even is the ending to this book? It just ended... no closure on anything!! WHY?!!?!
I haven't given this book a 1 star rating because I did find it to be extremely easy to read and I appreciated that the author didn't make sex such a big deal in the way it is treated in many YA stories. Having said that, I really can't recommend this book.
I really really didn't like our main character of Quinn. She was so so so selfish! But at the same time she was so aware of her selfishness and yet she just didn't care. I really couldn't stand her. She treats Morgan horribly!! Parts of the story with her interacting with Morgan were probably my least favourite and yet Morgan was such a glutton for punishment that I had trouble feeling sorry for him.
I didn't mind the romance in this story overall but I did have a real problem that Quinn wasn't in the least concerned that James literally kills innocent people...!
What even is the ending to this book? It just ended... no closure on anything!! WHY?!!?!
I haven't given this book a 1 star rating because I did find it to be extremely easy to read and I appreciated that the author didn't make sex such a big deal in the way it is treated in many YA stories. Having said that, I really can't recommend this book.
July 8, 2012
I received an ARC of Drain You by M. Beth Bloom from HarperTeen along with three other summer releases.
Where to start...
Putting it in the simplest terms possible, Drain You is about Quinlan Lacey (I think she's seventeen or eighteen, but I can't remember...) and her romance with James Sheets, a vampire. Whilst falling in love with a dead guy, Quinn's also determined to save her sort of best friend Libby from her vampire boyfriend, who's draining her of blood. That's basically all there is to it. I mean there's a tangle of romance going on what with James, Morgan (Quinn's co-worker), and Whit (Jame's younger, human brother), and there's some scary face-offs with a gang of four vampires (which, by the way, includes Libby's boyfriend). Drain You is told from Quinn's first person perspective and is divided (though I don't know why) into two parts.
Okay, there were parts of this book that I liked and that were funny, but unfortunately they were overshadowed by a lot of parts that I did not like.
First off, the way Quinn, Libby, James and sometimes Morgan talk is annoying. Are there really people who speak that way? Really? Quinn has the particularly annoying habit of ending her thoughts with "Whatever" even though there's no "Whatever" about it, and she does it about every five paragraphs (okay, that's a bit exaggerated, but she does it A LOT). I knew this book was going to be rough for me within the first paragraph just because of the way some of the characters talk. I can say that it improved a little as the book went on, but only a little.
Second, I DO NOT like James Sheets, the main romance. Every fiber of my being does not like him. I don't even know if I can put into words why I don't like him, but it continually built up while I was reading the first part of this book. . James just isn't my kind of guy. In no way did he appeal to me. On the note of James, Quinn's romance with him...it was very fast, insta-love. Basically, she sees him one night when she's leaving her job at the video store and is instantly taken with him. She can't get him off her mind and is determined to have him for a boyfriend even though Naomi Sheets (the youngest of the Sheets children, also human) tells Quinn that it won't work and she needs to give up (thank you, Naomi). Does, Quinn? No.
Third, Quinn is way too dependent on James. It's like she can't be her own person anymore, and just can't be happy without him.
I hate to say this, but it was even mentioned on the back of my copy, so... Twilight. First of all, Twilight was way better. Sorry, but in my opinion, it is. Also, I can see some Twilightish aspects in Drain You. I won't go into them, but they're there.
Let's move on to things I actually liked about this book...
Whit. I love Whit. Whit is a hundred times better than James. He is funny, upbeat, and human. He shows up in part two and improved the book by a lot. He becomes Quinn's best friend. I like Quinn with Whit whereas I did not like her with James. Please, Quinn, leave James and choose Whit instead. I'm begging you.
Naomi. I actually like Namoi even though she spends a great deal of the book actually hating Quinn. Why wasn't this book told from Naomi's point of view? It probably would have improved it, not to mention been a bit more unique for this kind of book. Naomi is one of those people who strives for perfection, and has her head on straight. She also didn't talk in that annoying way that I mentioned earlier.
Morgan. Morgan is Quinn's poor, curshed-out co-worker at the video store. He would do anything for Quinn, and Quinn uses this fact throughout the book to her advantage. She's doesn't deserve him, but she does at least know she doesn't deserve him.
Honestly, I think that's it. There were some instances of funny dialogue (especially between Whit and Quinn), but beyond that...yeah.
While I was reading this book, well, I kept waiting for something about it to stand out. I wanted to know what was special about it. Why did the publishers pick this book up? What's so wonderful about it? By the end, I came to the conclusion that there isn't anything. There's nothing special about the vampires. They can't go out in sunlight, fire kills them, they drink blood, biting turns humans, and they're basically a dead body. Yep. Seen all that before. Quinn, despite her annoying dialect, isn't really special either. She's typical as is the story. Harsh but true. Now, there are probably readers who will love this book. They'll identify with Quinn, love James, and think the plot is great. But, that's just not me. I have read a ton of vampire books, and this book just doesn't match up.
The writing is okay. The flow is okay. Quinn isn't the best heroine ever, but she's not the worst. She has her good and bad qualities. There's not a lot of action. The romance didn't appeal to me. The ending...I'm not sure what to make of the ending. It didn't feel like it tied everything off nicely. There were strings left hanging, but not even strings-left-hanging-to-lead-to-a-sequel. More like strings left dangling all alone. I didn't hate this book. It was just okay. The two stars is because it was an easy read and there were some aspects to it that I did enjoy.
If there's a sequel, I'll skim it in the bookstore, but I won't buy it (and then I'll only skim to see if Quinn decides to leave James for Whit).
Where to start...
Putting it in the simplest terms possible, Drain You is about Quinlan Lacey (I think she's seventeen or eighteen, but I can't remember...) and her romance with James Sheets, a vampire. Whilst falling in love with a dead guy, Quinn's also determined to save her sort of best friend Libby from her vampire boyfriend, who's draining her of blood. That's basically all there is to it. I mean there's a tangle of romance going on what with James, Morgan (Quinn's co-worker), and Whit (Jame's younger, human brother), and there's some scary face-offs with a gang of four vampires (which, by the way, includes Libby's boyfriend). Drain You is told from Quinn's first person perspective and is divided (though I don't know why) into two parts.
Okay, there were parts of this book that I liked and that were funny, but unfortunately they were overshadowed by a lot of parts that I did not like.
First off, the way Quinn, Libby, James and sometimes Morgan talk is annoying. Are there really people who speak that way? Really? Quinn has the particularly annoying habit of ending her thoughts with "Whatever" even though there's no "Whatever" about it, and she does it about every five paragraphs (okay, that's a bit exaggerated, but she does it A LOT). I knew this book was going to be rough for me within the first paragraph just because of the way some of the characters talk. I can say that it improved a little as the book went on, but only a little.
Second, I DO NOT like James Sheets, the main romance. Every fiber of my being does not like him. I don't even know if I can put into words why I don't like him, but it continually built up while I was reading the first part of this book. . James just isn't my kind of guy. In no way did he appeal to me. On the note of James, Quinn's romance with him...it was very fast, insta-love. Basically, she sees him one night when she's leaving her job at the video store and is instantly taken with him. She can't get him off her mind and is determined to have him for a boyfriend even though Naomi Sheets (the youngest of the Sheets children, also human) tells Quinn that it won't work and she needs to give up (thank you, Naomi). Does, Quinn? No.
Third, Quinn is way too dependent on James. It's like she can't be her own person anymore, and just can't be happy without him.
I hate to say this, but it was even mentioned on the back of my copy, so... Twilight. First of all, Twilight was way better. Sorry, but in my opinion, it is. Also, I can see some Twilightish aspects in Drain You. I won't go into them, but they're there.
Let's move on to things I actually liked about this book...
Whit. I love Whit. Whit is a hundred times better than James. He is funny, upbeat, and human. He shows up in part two and improved the book by a lot. He becomes Quinn's best friend. I like Quinn with Whit whereas I did not like her with James. Please, Quinn, leave James and choose Whit instead. I'm begging you.
Naomi. I actually like Namoi even though she spends a great deal of the book actually hating Quinn. Why wasn't this book told from Naomi's point of view? It probably would have improved it, not to mention been a bit more unique for this kind of book. Naomi is one of those people who strives for perfection, and has her head on straight. She also didn't talk in that annoying way that I mentioned earlier.
Morgan. Morgan is Quinn's poor, curshed-out co-worker at the video store. He would do anything for Quinn, and Quinn uses this fact throughout the book to her advantage. She's doesn't deserve him, but she does at least know she doesn't deserve him.
Honestly, I think that's it. There were some instances of funny dialogue (especially between Whit and Quinn), but beyond that...yeah.
While I was reading this book, well, I kept waiting for something about it to stand out. I wanted to know what was special about it. Why did the publishers pick this book up? What's so wonderful about it? By the end, I came to the conclusion that there isn't anything. There's nothing special about the vampires. They can't go out in sunlight, fire kills them, they drink blood, biting turns humans, and they're basically a dead body. Yep. Seen all that before. Quinn, despite her annoying dialect, isn't really special either. She's typical as is the story. Harsh but true. Now, there are probably readers who will love this book. They'll identify with Quinn, love James, and think the plot is great. But, that's just not me. I have read a ton of vampire books, and this book just doesn't match up.
The writing is okay. The flow is okay. Quinn isn't the best heroine ever, but she's not the worst. She has her good and bad qualities. There's not a lot of action. The romance didn't appeal to me. The ending...I'm not sure what to make of the ending. It didn't feel like it tied everything off nicely. There were strings left hanging, but not even strings-left-hanging-to-lead-to-a-sequel. More like strings left dangling all alone. I didn't hate this book. It was just okay. The two stars is because it was an easy read and there were some aspects to it that I did enjoy.
If there's a sequel, I'll skim it in the bookstore, but I won't buy it (and then I'll only skim to see if Quinn decides to leave James for Whit).
August 29, 2018
The first half of the book I had zero clues about what I'm reading. I was 100 pages in and still didn't get the story. Nothing was connecting and no background of the character. It was like I was just dumped into a story and had to read and flow. At this end, I thought I might leave it but I never do that. I can hold on to a book if it's too slow or heavy and I need to ponder upon its contents but never leave a book and never go back. It just haunts me.
So, I decided to go with it, no matter what finish it and finally today I did.
But my thoughts haven't changed!
I do get the story's main idea but the characters were loosely built and they had simply no basics build or created an ending!
What happened to James and where did everyone go and many other questions are still in my head!
I got this book as a generous gift from a local bookstore but could not find myself loving it.
All in all, I'm sorry but my first and hopefully the last worst rated book, 1/5🌟🤦♀️
So, I decided to go with it, no matter what finish it and finally today I did.
But my thoughts haven't changed!
I do get the story's main idea but the characters were loosely built and they had simply no basics build or created an ending!
What happened to James and where did everyone go and many other questions are still in my head!
I got this book as a generous gift from a local bookstore but could not find myself loving it.
All in all, I'm sorry but my first and hopefully the last worst rated book, 1/5🌟🤦♀️
July 23, 2012
Drain You
By M. Beth Bloom
YA Paranormal Romance (light romance)
HarperTeen, July 24th, 2012
Rating: Strong PG-13. Open door sex scenes, but no really details given
Coffee Beans: 4/5
Favorite Lines: So I loved Libby, but in a vintage way. Like a childhood blanket, or my dad’s mac and cheese. A deep love, but not one you tap into on a daily basis. (Ebook, pg 25)
Okay, no big deal, I’d just call Stiles…at his underground lair, where he most likely had Libby chained to a radiator and she was loving it. Stella gave me the number, which contained not even one six, let alone the three in a row I’d expected. (Ebook, pg 76)
…I drew on so much eyeliner I looked like a sobbing drunk raccoon on a tequila bender… (Ebook pg 134)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.
I admit, when I read the first chapter, I wasn’t that impressed. The voice was a little off and the writing didn’t grab me. But I kept reading and figured out that this was pretty much awesomeness. It instantly reminded me of The Lost Boys, but now. It also reminded me of the 90’s (which I loved) and made me want to move back to SoCal and remember the good times I had while growing up.
There were multiple things that impressed me with this book:
• The dialogue. Snappy, witty, snarky, and funny, Bloom’s dialogue is just downright good. I was there, it was real, and it carried the story much more than just narrative alone
• The MC’s voice. Quinn has a dark sense of humor and is so quick with everything, and her attitude of “whatever” is the icing on the cake. There were so many funny lines that were added that perfect certain something, which made the entire reading experience that much better
• The MC. Quinn, for me, is very real. She cares deeply about those who mean something to her. She doesn’t know what she wants when it comes to boys. She’s shallow and selfish at times, but she has drive. And I didn’t find that off-putting at any point. Mainly because she gets called on it (several times) and she knows it’s the truth. But we’ve all been there. Admit it.
• The relationships. There are several different, unique relationships Quinn is a part of, and they all come to life so realistically. Her absentee parents but their very functional relationship. Her coworker and complicated relationship-er, Morgan. Her casual best friend, Libby. The snobby girl from school, Naomi. James, the hot brother Quinn never knew existed. The equally hot other brother and instant best friend when crush disappears, Whit. And the evil twins, Stiles and Sanders. They all work brilliantly.
• The package. I’m assuming this is going to be a series. Depending on how well this one goes. I thought it was a tight, well-written story encapsulated into one book. The ending was finite but there are definitely LOTS of questions that still need answering.
There was one thing that didn’t sit well with me, though.
• Instalove. I’m not a fan of this. It’s unbelievable and really jars me out of a story. Yeah, we get Quinn thinks James is hot and she’s majorly crushing on him and they have to get together for the sake of plot progression. But getting as close and invested as they did—and in only a week—is a little hard for me to swallow.
• The MC sleeps. A lot. Which isn’t bad, I guess. But she’s always tired and sleeping. *Shrugs shoulders* Just thought I’d mention that.
If you’re a fan of the 90’s (and if you aren’t, you should be), if you liked The Lost Boys (and if you didn’t, shame on you. Watch it again and change your mind), and if you enjoy dark humor, pick up the book. You’ll probably be pretty entertained.
Pick it up and decide for yourself. :)
And yes, this is another vampire book. I love them so much <3
By M. Beth Bloom
YA Paranormal Romance (light romance)
HarperTeen, July 24th, 2012
Rating: Strong PG-13. Open door sex scenes, but no really details given
Coffee Beans: 4/5
Favorite Lines: So I loved Libby, but in a vintage way. Like a childhood blanket, or my dad’s mac and cheese. A deep love, but not one you tap into on a daily basis. (Ebook, pg 25)
Okay, no big deal, I’d just call Stiles…at his underground lair, where he most likely had Libby chained to a radiator and she was loving it. Stella gave me the number, which contained not even one six, let alone the three in a row I’d expected. (Ebook, pg 76)
…I drew on so much eyeliner I looked like a sobbing drunk raccoon on a tequila bender… (Ebook pg 134)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.
I admit, when I read the first chapter, I wasn’t that impressed. The voice was a little off and the writing didn’t grab me. But I kept reading and figured out that this was pretty much awesomeness. It instantly reminded me of The Lost Boys, but now. It also reminded me of the 90’s (which I loved) and made me want to move back to SoCal and remember the good times I had while growing up.
There were multiple things that impressed me with this book:
• The dialogue. Snappy, witty, snarky, and funny, Bloom’s dialogue is just downright good. I was there, it was real, and it carried the story much more than just narrative alone
• The MC’s voice. Quinn has a dark sense of humor and is so quick with everything, and her attitude of “whatever” is the icing on the cake. There were so many funny lines that were added that perfect certain something, which made the entire reading experience that much better
• The MC. Quinn, for me, is very real. She cares deeply about those who mean something to her. She doesn’t know what she wants when it comes to boys. She’s shallow and selfish at times, but she has drive. And I didn’t find that off-putting at any point. Mainly because she gets called on it (several times) and she knows it’s the truth. But we’ve all been there. Admit it.
• The relationships. There are several different, unique relationships Quinn is a part of, and they all come to life so realistically. Her absentee parents but their very functional relationship. Her coworker and complicated relationship-er, Morgan. Her casual best friend, Libby. The snobby girl from school, Naomi. James, the hot brother Quinn never knew existed. The equally hot other brother and instant best friend when crush disappears, Whit. And the evil twins, Stiles and Sanders. They all work brilliantly.
• The package. I’m assuming this is going to be a series. Depending on how well this one goes. I thought it was a tight, well-written story encapsulated into one book. The ending was finite but there are definitely LOTS of questions that still need answering.
There was one thing that didn’t sit well with me, though.
• Instalove. I’m not a fan of this. It’s unbelievable and really jars me out of a story. Yeah, we get Quinn thinks James is hot and she’s majorly crushing on him and they have to get together for the sake of plot progression. But getting as close and invested as they did—and in only a week—is a little hard for me to swallow.
• The MC sleeps. A lot. Which isn’t bad, I guess. But she’s always tired and sleeping. *Shrugs shoulders* Just thought I’d mention that.
If you’re a fan of the 90’s (and if you aren’t, you should be), if you liked The Lost Boys (and if you didn’t, shame on you. Watch it again and change your mind), and if you enjoy dark humor, pick up the book. You’ll probably be pretty entertained.
Pick it up and decide for yourself. :)
And yes, this is another vampire book. I love them so much <3
July 5, 2012
For this review and more (including an awesome giveaway!) visit my my blog
*The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review*
Have you ever read a book that made you so, so angry, not because it is bad or offencive but because it could have been amazing? That is how Drain You made me feel.
M. Beth Bloom is clearly an incredibly talented writer. Her style is poetic and beautifully descriptive. Her world building is strong and she is clearly very creative. The problem is that Drain You has a plot that I feel I’ve read a million times and a character that I just couldn’t like, not even a little bit.
Let’s start with the plot. It is nothing we haven’t seen before. Bored teen falls in love with dark and dangerous vampire. She completely ignores/abuses/uses her male best friend who for some inexplicable reason is head over heels for her. Vamp boyfriend leaves and she falls into an extremely dramatic depression, etc, etc. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? What Drain You does do differently from the other books like it is focus on a different type of character. There are no self-conscious plain girls here. This is Gossip Girl meets Twilight; everyone is beautiful, spoiled and completely self-absorbed. Their time is taken up with parties, alcohol and sex. The writing also does its best to remind us that these kids are ‘cool’ there is a lot of descriptions of (barely there) clothes and a large use of the words ‘like’ and ‘cool’. All of this didn’t help me like the characters at all especially Quinn.
Quinn has to be one of my least favourite characters of all time. She is unbelievably selfish and the worse thing is that she knows it. She goes on about how selfish she is but doesn’t once try and change herself. She uses people for what she needs without even caring about the consequences. She was at her worse when James was around she doesn’t care that he is a murderer she falls in love with him straight away and that is all that matters. In reality I am not even sure she is in love with him, she sleeps with him, gets depressed when he goes away (for only a week or two) but it doesn’t stop her from throwing herself at her best friend and developing a possessive attraction to James’ brother Whit. It is implied that something will happen between them in the future, so much for love! I think the truth is that she expects everyone to love her whilst she remains free to love who she wants when it suits her. I quite honestly hated her.
Yet, despite the plot and the terrible characters there are moments of brilliance in this book. The dark side of the vampires are great and the moments when the villains are around are creepy and spine-tingling good. Bloom is not afraid to take her writing to dark places and that combined with her writing style creates sparks of magic. Unfortunately there is just not enough of these moments, instead the pages are crammed with teen angst and relationship issues.
I don’t think I have ever come across a book with such unused potential before. The good parts of this book are outstanding but it is all weighted down by unlikeable characters and an all too familiar plot.
I think Beth Bloom is an author to watch, I may not be a fan of this book but I look forward to reading something different from her, hopefully with characters I can get behind.
*The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review*
Have you ever read a book that made you so, so angry, not because it is bad or offencive but because it could have been amazing? That is how Drain You made me feel.
M. Beth Bloom is clearly an incredibly talented writer. Her style is poetic and beautifully descriptive. Her world building is strong and she is clearly very creative. The problem is that Drain You has a plot that I feel I’ve read a million times and a character that I just couldn’t like, not even a little bit.
Let’s start with the plot. It is nothing we haven’t seen before. Bored teen falls in love with dark and dangerous vampire. She completely ignores/abuses/uses her male best friend who for some inexplicable reason is head over heels for her. Vamp boyfriend leaves and she falls into an extremely dramatic depression, etc, etc. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? What Drain You does do differently from the other books like it is focus on a different type of character. There are no self-conscious plain girls here. This is Gossip Girl meets Twilight; everyone is beautiful, spoiled and completely self-absorbed. Their time is taken up with parties, alcohol and sex. The writing also does its best to remind us that these kids are ‘cool’ there is a lot of descriptions of (barely there) clothes and a large use of the words ‘like’ and ‘cool’. All of this didn’t help me like the characters at all especially Quinn.
Quinn has to be one of my least favourite characters of all time. She is unbelievably selfish and the worse thing is that she knows it. She goes on about how selfish she is but doesn’t once try and change herself. She uses people for what she needs without even caring about the consequences. She was at her worse when James was around she doesn’t care that he is a murderer she falls in love with him straight away and that is all that matters. In reality I am not even sure she is in love with him, she sleeps with him, gets depressed when he goes away (for only a week or two) but it doesn’t stop her from throwing herself at her best friend and developing a possessive attraction to James’ brother Whit. It is implied that something will happen between them in the future, so much for love! I think the truth is that she expects everyone to love her whilst she remains free to love who she wants when it suits her. I quite honestly hated her.
Yet, despite the plot and the terrible characters there are moments of brilliance in this book. The dark side of the vampires are great and the moments when the villains are around are creepy and spine-tingling good. Bloom is not afraid to take her writing to dark places and that combined with her writing style creates sparks of magic. Unfortunately there is just not enough of these moments, instead the pages are crammed with teen angst and relationship issues.
I don’t think I have ever come across a book with such unused potential before. The good parts of this book are outstanding but it is all weighted down by unlikeable characters and an all too familiar plot.
I think Beth Bloom is an author to watch, I may not be a fan of this book but I look forward to reading something different from her, hopefully with characters I can get behind.
July 22, 2012
Okay, so this one is a tough one, guys. There's a LOT I liked about this book, and then a lot of it just didn't work very well for me. While "Drain You" is has a very dreamy, languorous style to it, the bigger parts of the plot just kind of didn't ring true. But I can tell you one thing - if you're a child of the 90s, this is a book you definitely have to check out.
The good parts: this book drips of pre-Buffy '90s pop culture - video stores (with actual VHS tapes!), some of my favorite musicians (Bjork and Nirvana are mentioned), the fashion (OH THE FASHION), having to actually call people to talk to them, and so forth. Bloom does a fantastic job with plunging us back into that time period and really made me long for it (even though I was 9 or 10 at that point). So the worldbuilding for this book was surprisingly top-notch. Bloom does a great job with sensory imagery and language to really bring us back into the 90s and all of its greatness (and horrors), and I was pleasantly surprised on that point, too, as it's so very hard to accomplish. But Bloom did it.
What was also great was the character building for our MC and her best friends - but not so much for the love interest. I'm split on this one because there was a rather strong dichotomy between the stronger character building with the MC and her best friends - and then in regards to everyone else. It was rather painful to read, and disappointing when I saw the most important people (and their world) really, really fleshed out but everyone else feeling rather one dimensional. So when it came to character building as a whole, I felt like this book definitely needed at least one or two more drafts to clean things up and make everyone on even footing in terms of character development.
What wasn't cool: the insta-love. While bringing vampires into a pre-Buffy culture seemed like an amusing idea, the insta-love definitely ruined it for me. From there, the plot fell into the trap that so much of the PNR genre (whether it's YA or adult, it doesn't matter) does - instant attraction and longing, usually ending up with one partner stalking another until the actual love action happens. And that's when I kind of mentally checked out. I stayed with it until about 100 pages in, and then I just couldn't take it anymore. The PNR trap just kind of sucked that dreamy joy out of it for me. I was done. Though I did sneak a peak forward to the zombie bit (which was fun), but the PNR trap had already done its damage by then.
So, as you can see, I'm really split. On the one hand, the style, the voice, and the worldbuilding were top-notch. On the other, the plot and the character building just didn't really happen. And it seems like I'm not the only reviewer out there that feels this way - there was so many strengths in this book but the weaknesses really kind of started to outweigh them halfway in. It wasn't complete crap, but it wasn't even three star adequate, either.
But that's just me, and I'm ridiculously picky. For fans of the PNR genre, I'd definitely recommend this. Either way, I suggest you give it a read to see where you stand regarding the plot versus the style. "Drain You" is out from HarperTeen on July 24, 2012 in North America, so be sure to check it out then!
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
The good parts: this book drips of pre-Buffy '90s pop culture - video stores (with actual VHS tapes!), some of my favorite musicians (Bjork and Nirvana are mentioned), the fashion (OH THE FASHION), having to actually call people to talk to them, and so forth. Bloom does a fantastic job with plunging us back into that time period and really made me long for it (even though I was 9 or 10 at that point). So the worldbuilding for this book was surprisingly top-notch. Bloom does a great job with sensory imagery and language to really bring us back into the 90s and all of its greatness (and horrors), and I was pleasantly surprised on that point, too, as it's so very hard to accomplish. But Bloom did it.
What was also great was the character building for our MC and her best friends - but not so much for the love interest. I'm split on this one because there was a rather strong dichotomy between the stronger character building with the MC and her best friends - and then in regards to everyone else. It was rather painful to read, and disappointing when I saw the most important people (and their world) really, really fleshed out but everyone else feeling rather one dimensional. So when it came to character building as a whole, I felt like this book definitely needed at least one or two more drafts to clean things up and make everyone on even footing in terms of character development.
What wasn't cool: the insta-love. While bringing vampires into a pre-Buffy culture seemed like an amusing idea, the insta-love definitely ruined it for me. From there, the plot fell into the trap that so much of the PNR genre (whether it's YA or adult, it doesn't matter) does - instant attraction and longing, usually ending up with one partner stalking another until the actual love action happens. And that's when I kind of mentally checked out. I stayed with it until about 100 pages in, and then I just couldn't take it anymore. The PNR trap just kind of sucked that dreamy joy out of it for me. I was done. Though I did sneak a peak forward to the zombie bit (which was fun), but the PNR trap had already done its damage by then.
So, as you can see, I'm really split. On the one hand, the style, the voice, and the worldbuilding were top-notch. On the other, the plot and the character building just didn't really happen. And it seems like I'm not the only reviewer out there that feels this way - there was so many strengths in this book but the weaknesses really kind of started to outweigh them halfway in. It wasn't complete crap, but it wasn't even three star adequate, either.
But that's just me, and I'm ridiculously picky. For fans of the PNR genre, I'd definitely recommend this. Either way, I suggest you give it a read to see where you stand regarding the plot versus the style. "Drain You" is out from HarperTeen on July 24, 2012 in North America, so be sure to check it out then!
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
April 29, 2015
Dude, like, whatever.
Ok, some thoughts, maybe more to come, not sure.
- This book takes place in the 90's, and the retro-ality was done pretty well, for the most part. Occasional anachronisms, but I guess it might be inevitable to have a few.
and if you are From The Past, like I am, and you liked that about it, you should go here.
http://www.mtv.com/news/1986731/delia... ....heartheartheartheart :D
- Starts off really strong with a fun teenage voice. Reminiscent of _Anatomy of a Misfit_ for that and for the retro-ness.
- But it gets pretty draggy by 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through, because the plot and characters are thin.
- The main character is not likeable, though I didn't hate her, either. But I did get really sick of hearing about diet coke and all the ridiculous stuff she was wearing. Soooo not impressed by her "fashion sense". At one point, she wears a bikini top as a shirt. TO WORK. SHE WEARS IT TO WORK. No.
- I also got super-sick of hearing about what she ate or didn't eat. "Soda and saltine dinners" - yeah. Just don't, with that. People have eating disorders and don't need a role model who drinks 10 cans of diet coke a day.
- Quinn is not a good name for a character in the 90s if you're doing iconic 90s. Quinn from the 90s is already an iconic character, namely, Quinn from Daria, and you should just not use that name. My opinion. (Obviously.)
- omfg having a damn Nirvana song in my head nonstop for the whole time I was reading this book. I can't deal with Nirvana or pictures of Kurt Cobain or anything; I feel about it the way I would feel about a really bad and really intense relationship I had in my teens. It was like that. Like a relationship I had in my head. It's all super creepy and best forgotten. Lol, I don't get along with my fifteen-year-old self, though at least she did a lot of art.
Also, the line after "It is now my duty to completely drain you," is: "I travel through a tube and end up in your infection." and when you have a jukebox for a brain, you're gonna hear that next line. Every.damn.time you think about it.
- The love interest was flat and uninteresting. He was just, eh. I would have liked him to be more vivid and for it to be more obvious why she was in lurrrve with him.
- It was unrealistic that the love interest's brother would step in to cheer her up after love interest skips town.
- Oh wait, this book is full of vampires, wtf am I talking about, unrealistic.
Dunno, overall, I enjoyed this book for the entertainment value. I continued to want to know what would happen throughtout, which was about all I was looking for. It's not great literature, the plot is strikingly unoriginal (but whatever), the word "whatever" is way overused, and no one should emulate Quinn.
But it was O. K. Just OK. OK enough that if there's a sequel, I'll read it, though.
As many others said, I think there is a lot of potential here and this author will be back with some really kick-ass stuff in the future.
Ok, some thoughts, maybe more to come, not sure.
- This book takes place in the 90's, and the retro-ality was done pretty well, for the most part. Occasional anachronisms, but I guess it might be inevitable to have a few.
and if you are From The Past, like I am, and you liked that about it, you should go here.
http://www.mtv.com/news/1986731/delia... ....heartheartheartheart :D
- Starts off really strong with a fun teenage voice. Reminiscent of _Anatomy of a Misfit_ for that and for the retro-ness.
- But it gets pretty draggy by 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through, because the plot and characters are thin.
- The main character is not likeable, though I didn't hate her, either. But I did get really sick of hearing about diet coke and all the ridiculous stuff she was wearing. Soooo not impressed by her "fashion sense". At one point, she wears a bikini top as a shirt. TO WORK. SHE WEARS IT TO WORK. No.
- I also got super-sick of hearing about what she ate or didn't eat. "Soda and saltine dinners" - yeah. Just don't, with that. People have eating disorders and don't need a role model who drinks 10 cans of diet coke a day.
- Quinn is not a good name for a character in the 90s if you're doing iconic 90s. Quinn from the 90s is already an iconic character, namely, Quinn from Daria, and you should just not use that name. My opinion. (Obviously.)
- omfg having a damn Nirvana song in my head nonstop for the whole time I was reading this book. I can't deal with Nirvana or pictures of Kurt Cobain or anything; I feel about it the way I would feel about a really bad and really intense relationship I had in my teens. It was like that. Like a relationship I had in my head. It's all super creepy and best forgotten. Lol, I don't get along with my fifteen-year-old self, though at least she did a lot of art.
Also, the line after "It is now my duty to completely drain you," is: "I travel through a tube and end up in your infection." and when you have a jukebox for a brain, you're gonna hear that next line. Every.damn.time you think about it.
- The love interest was flat and uninteresting. He was just, eh. I would have liked him to be more vivid and for it to be more obvious why she was in lurrrve with him.
- It was unrealistic that the love interest's brother would step in to cheer her up after love interest skips town.
- Oh wait, this book is full of vampires, wtf am I talking about, unrealistic.
Dunno, overall, I enjoyed this book for the entertainment value. I continued to want to know what would happen throughtout, which was about all I was looking for. It's not great literature, the plot is strikingly unoriginal (but whatever), the word "whatever" is way overused, and no one should emulate Quinn.
But it was O. K. Just OK. OK enough that if there's a sequel, I'll read it, though.
As many others said, I think there is a lot of potential here and this author will be back with some really kick-ass stuff in the future.
January 25, 2016
Kurt Cobain sang ♪♫♪ It is now my duty to completely drain you♪♫♪ Muahahaha. Talk about vampiric tendencies.Anyway, just mentioned this here cos the book and the song share the same title and *shrugs* Kurt Cobain is well, Kurt Cobain. O.o
Quinlan Lacey is like Bella-I-am-a-Doltwad-Swann on an acid trip.Unlike our nutty Bella,she-
1)is snarky
2)Has a life even though it only contains-
a)working snoozing at a video store
b)ranting about her sad existence in a very haha way
c)fending off the romantic advances of good friend and coworker
d)mooning over Kurt Cobain (although he is six feet under)
3)has very cool clothes- think super long Nine Inch Nail t-shirts and micro shorts that stay almost hidden beneath aforementioned NIN t-shirts (but not in a trashy way), tons of mascara and and armload of gold necklaces.
4)has a habit of using people. On second thought, one person in particular (I am really starting to draw comparisons here- Remember Angela Chase and Brian Krakow?)
It's summer break and Quin is basically spending her days very uneventfully until one day she sees her loner/distant classmate Naomi Sheets all bloodies across the video store and Naomi's brother James lurking nearby.
Now James is that kind of a guy who walks a girl without actually walking her home, drains people for nourishment and apparently can't stay away from Quin despite Naomi's warnings.
Come to think of it, this book is pretty messed. Not only there is insta-love (Aaaarrghh!), there are a bunch of creepy vampire who tend to lurk in a lurky way.
The book started on a very good note. (Had my hopes flying high like a kite) But it started going downhill halfway or so.
It was basically a bumpity-bump ride for me. You know there were times when the plot didn't make sense AT ALL and the ending was kind of abrupt. Oh well, whatever nevermind
THEME SONG DRAIN YOU by NIRVANA (Well, obvi!)
♪♫♪ One baby to another says I'm lucky to have met you
I don't care what you think unless it is about me♪♫♪
Oh Kurt. How you make me swoon.
In all seriousness, I gave this book another full star because of Nirvana (yeah I am a bit biased like that)
What?What? My So Called Life meets Twilight? My So Called Life? As in Angela Chase and *squeals* Jordan Catalano? As in the awesomest TV show ever?
I know I'd sworn off Vamp books for good, but just look at it! The blurb says My So Called Life. These 4 words-Beckoning to me like a beacon does a mosquito in the darkest of the night. How can a girl ever resist that?
While reading-I can actually hear Claire Danes aka Angela-snark-rant-snark-Chase doing the voice-over thing-
“My dad and I used to be pretty tight. The sad truth is, my breasts have come between us.”- Angela
Hahahahaha. What a larf.
*full review laterrr*
Quinlan Lacey is like Bella-I-am-a-Doltwad-Swann on an acid trip.Unlike our nutty Bella,she-
1)is snarky
2)Has a life even though it only contains-
a)
b)ranting about her sad existence in a very haha way
c)fending off the romantic advances of good friend and coworker
d)mooning over Kurt Cobain (although he is six feet under)
3)has very cool clothes- think super long Nine Inch Nail t-shirts and micro shorts that stay almost hidden beneath aforementioned NIN t-shirts (but not in a trashy way), tons of mascara and and armload of gold necklaces.
4)has a habit of using people. On second thought, one person in particular (I am really starting to draw comparisons here- Remember Angela Chase and Brian Krakow?)
It's summer break and Quin is basically spending her days very uneventfully until one day she sees her loner/distant classmate Naomi Sheets all bloodies across the video store and Naomi's brother James lurking nearby.
Now James is that kind of a guy who walks a girl without actually walking her home, drains people for nourishment and apparently can't stay away from Quin despite Naomi's warnings.
Come to think of it, this book is pretty messed. Not only there is insta-love (Aaaarrghh!), there are a bunch of creepy vampire who tend to lurk in a lurky way.
The book started on a very good note. (Had my hopes flying high like a kite) But it started going downhill halfway or so.
It was basically a bumpity-bump ride for me. You know there were times when the plot didn't make sense AT ALL and the ending was kind of abrupt. Oh well, whatever nevermind
THEME SONG DRAIN YOU by NIRVANA (Well, obvi!)
♪♫♪ One baby to another says I'm lucky to have met you
I don't care what you think unless it is about me♪♫♪
Oh Kurt. How you make me swoon.
In all seriousness, I gave this book another full star because of Nirvana (yeah I am a bit biased like that)
What?What? My So Called Life meets Twilight? My So Called Life? As in Angela Chase and *squeals* Jordan Catalano? As in the awesomest TV show ever?
I know I'd sworn off Vamp books for good, but just look at it! The blurb says My So Called Life. These 4 words-Beckoning to me like a beacon does a mosquito in the darkest of the night. How can a girl ever resist that?
While reading-I can actually hear Claire Danes aka Angela-snark-rant-snark-Chase doing the voice-over thing-
“My dad and I used to be pretty tight. The sad truth is, my breasts have come between us.”- Angela
Hahahahaha. What a larf.
*full review laterrr*
May 30, 2012
Drain You is a retro chic paranormal filled with a laugh out loud dialogue, an endearing leading lady and a greasy model-ish vampire boyfriend/love interest. I loved the 80's and 90's references to the baby sitter's club, Nirvana, The Cure and James Spader. I felt like I was in a flashback from the past. Quinlan who works at video journeys and who has a strange sense of fashion/normal attire meets an older, quiet and reserved James who just so happens to be a vampire and who just so happens to be the older brother of Naomi (one of the popular girls at Quinn's school). Although the majority of the book dealt with Quinn's obsession with James, it also had a coming of age feel to it. I really enjoyed Quinn's sassy and confident attitude, even when things were looking pretty dark. It was refreshing to read about a girl who was not only confident about herself but with her body. I loved Quinn's clueless and adorably funny parents. You can't help but want them to be yours especially when they're cool about you staying out late and not showing up until two days later. I enjoyed the tension between Quinn and Whit and Quinn and her co-worker Morgan. During the second part of the book I was starting to think that Quinn really wanted to be with Whit or rather she was better fit with him. I enjoyed the complication and the unspoken feelings that she had for him. Quinn is definitely a free spirit, but it often gets her into trouble especially with boys. I personally couldn't help but adore that she was a go with the flow kind of girl. I thought the tension between Quinn and her friendship with Libby was a nice touch to the story. I think it's a topic that a lot of girls can relate to (losing a friend to a boy, even if it is a vampire boy.) Overall, I really enjoyed Bloom's writing style and I thought she did a fantastic job telling Quinn's story. My only complaint is I wish the story would've wrapped up at the end a little better but in reality it leaves room for a possible sequel to the story.
June 5, 2012
Advanced copy obtained via Edelweiss. Thank you, HarperCollins!
Drain You is a very interesting book. It's the first one I've read (and the first I've been accepted for) on Edelweiss.
The only word I can really come up with to describe Drain You is unique. The book is truly unlike anything else I've ever read, and I can't tell if that's for better or for worse.
First of all, the book doesn't really go anywhere. It does have a plot, but it doesn't necessarily follow the structure plots are supposed to. The book just kind of does whatever it wants to, which is refreshing, but it might throw some people off.
The writing is very conversational. When I say very conversational, I mean very conversational. The characters actually say and think "like," which is commonly done in reality, but I've never actually seen it written in a book. I can't tell whether it shoots the maturity of the book to the ground or is perfection. Probably both.
The characters aren't exactly memorable, but they're not ignorantly stupid and annoying, either. They don't make Drain You one of my favorite books, nor do they make it my least favorite. I'm curious as to whether or not the book is part of a series.
In case the cover didn't let you know or the summary didn't let you know, this book is about vampires. There, I said it. But the thing I like about Drain You, the thing that gave it four stars instead of three, is the fact that the vampires aren't the main story. The main character isn't completely preoccupied with the fact that her boyfriend is a bloodsucker to the point where she can't think or act straight and ends up just acting like an idiot. Drain You is mostly about the MC's friendships and relationships. The vampire thing is off to the side. I haven't read a vampire book in years where they're not the main focus of the book. This is the reason Drain You is so unique and different from all the other books.
M. Beth Bloom, I'll be keeping an eye on you. If you come out with anything else, I might just pick it up. You never know.
Drain You is a very interesting book. It's the first one I've read (and the first I've been accepted for) on Edelweiss.
The only word I can really come up with to describe Drain You is unique. The book is truly unlike anything else I've ever read, and I can't tell if that's for better or for worse.
First of all, the book doesn't really go anywhere. It does have a plot, but it doesn't necessarily follow the structure plots are supposed to. The book just kind of does whatever it wants to, which is refreshing, but it might throw some people off.
The writing is very conversational. When I say very conversational, I mean very conversational. The characters actually say and think "like," which is commonly done in reality, but I've never actually seen it written in a book. I can't tell whether it shoots the maturity of the book to the ground or is perfection. Probably both.
The characters aren't exactly memorable, but they're not ignorantly stupid and annoying, either. They don't make Drain You one of my favorite books, nor do they make it my least favorite. I'm curious as to whether or not the book is part of a series.
In case the cover didn't let you know or the summary didn't let you know, this book is about vampires. There, I said it. But the thing I like about Drain You, the thing that gave it four stars instead of three, is the fact that the vampires aren't the main story. The main character isn't completely preoccupied with the fact that her boyfriend is a bloodsucker to the point where she can't think or act straight and ends up just acting like an idiot. Drain You is mostly about the MC's friendships and relationships. The vampire thing is off to the side. I haven't read a vampire book in years where they're not the main focus of the book. This is the reason Drain You is so unique and different from all the other books.
M. Beth Bloom, I'll be keeping an eye on you. If you come out with anything else, I might just pick it up. You never know.
September 12, 2012
As a writer and teacher who just spent her summer teaching a bunch of teenaged girls how to write, I can tell you that this book is a refreshing delight. I mean, yes, haters, it's another vampire book, but don't be so quick to toss it in the "Twilight" pile. After all, Quinn is a young woman with a strong personality and unique voice, which is--ahem--more than I can say for some characters. She's a quirky teen from LA who's equal parts strange, cool, insecure, funny, insightful, refreshing, romantic, dramatic, and a little reluctant to save the world--or at least her world. Because while I'm not going to give anything away in terms of story or plot, that's essentially what she has to do. So if you're just looking for another simple girl-meets-vampire story, then maybe you should move along, as this story is about much more: it's about growing up, the inescapable boredom of summer, and the tortured longing of teenage love. It's about a girl who's trying to figure out who she is in a world filled with grunge music and cute boys and fridges overflowing with Diet Coke. And yeah, so she ends up crushing on a guy who sucks blood. So what? So pick up a copy and let yourself get carried away. Trust me. I read it in a weekend and found myself listening to Nirvana and eating Twizzlers for the first time in ten years.
May 24, 2012
Drain you is an great read. At times I will admit that I was laughing out loud. I just loved how Quinn was able to mock herself in the way that she does. I got this as an ARC and I almost did not read it as I am about done reading vampire books as they are all the same but I was pleasantly pleased with Drain You. Drain you is not your ordinary Vampire book, it is like no vampire book that I have ever read before.
The characters were hilarious. I love Quinn’s fashion sense. She has the greatest clothes in this book. I liked James also, he is such a tortured soul and I am glad he was able to find a little bit of happiness. All of the other supporting characters were great also
I do hope that there will be another book, because with the ending the way that it is I can only hope for another book. I was able to finish this 400 page novel in one day, it is just so good of a read that you will not want to stop reading. Well go out and pre-order this novel. You will not be disappointed.
The characters were hilarious. I love Quinn’s fashion sense. She has the greatest clothes in this book. I liked James also, he is such a tortured soul and I am glad he was able to find a little bit of happiness. All of the other supporting characters were great also
I do hope that there will be another book, because with the ending the way that it is I can only hope for another book. I was able to finish this 400 page novel in one day, it is just so good of a read that you will not want to stop reading. Well go out and pre-order this novel. You will not be disappointed.
July 17, 2012
As I stated before, Paranormal Teen is not my genre of choice but I rather enjoyed this book. It wasn't over the top paranormal, at least not in my eyes. The story was told from the point of view of a teenager and sounded like it. The narrative was humourous at times and I found the story intriguing. I had a hard time putting this book down.
I have always stuck to a certain group of authors but have lately found myself stepping outside the box to read new authors and more importantly different genres. I may have found a new genre that interests me. I've never read Twilight, Harry Potter or any of the other popular teen fantasy novels, but I did enjoy this one.
I have always stuck to a certain group of authors but have lately found myself stepping outside the box to read new authors and more importantly different genres. I may have found a new genre that interests me. I've never read Twilight, Harry Potter or any of the other popular teen fantasy novels, but I did enjoy this one.
June 17, 2012
This book was a quick read. I enjoyed the throw backs to the 80's and 90's but at the same time it made me feel like the story was written in the 90's. I don't think that teenagers talk the way the characters did in the book. I also found the story to be a lot like twilight, girl meets boy, girl instantly falls in love, boy leaves girl, boy comes back and wants to save girl. The ending was a little abrupt and very open, which leaves me wondering if there will be a second book.
June 20, 2012
This is me reminding myself to write my review. I definitely liked it, but there were a few things that I wasn't sold on--the romance, mainly.
June 16, 2012
DNF. Could not get into it.
July 3, 2012
A good book.A quick read for me since I am into vampire and werewolf books.I thought it was fast moving and the end was left open so that a second one could be written. Hint, hint!
August 18, 2012
I might be experiencing an extremely strong reaction to a rather mediocre book, which is strange. I’ve never liked the phrase “guilty pleasure.” Why should you feel bad about anything you enjoy? But I enjoyed this book, and I kind of feel like I shouldn’t have.
The voice is going to annoy the hell out of a lot of people. It is a product of its setting – Los Angeles, circa late 90s I think, considering the lack of cell phones and the continued unironic relevance of The Cure and James Spader – and as such is horribly vapid and up its own ass. The first twenty pages of ripped leggings, leopard bikini top, bowler hat, smudged multicolor nail polish, straw fedora tipped back, guys in denim shorts (no really, guys in denim shorts), and everyone has too much money and too much time and not enough parents I had to stop myself from facepalming until I had a big red imprint on my cheek. And then I got into it.
As pretentious as it is, as unapologetically hip every single word is, Bloom does in fact know what she’s doing. When you tap into the tremulous nature of youth, especially that of lost rich kids whose parents are in Cairo, at galas, don’t-forget-to-double-click-the-Lexus notes left on the pillow, you’re accessing what’s so damn creepy about being a teenager. Something that I always remember said about the movie Brick was that it was so effective because it was made by people young enough to remember how scary high school is. Walking home alone from work half-naked on hot summer night is fun and oh-so-quirky until all of a sudden it’s not, and your vulnerability, your mortality becomes profoundly real. That instead of the popular girl’s manic pixie best friend you are prey in every sense of the word. It’s what Brett Easton Ellis on one end, and Twillight on the other don’t have – the unraveled feeling of a lonely summer vacation.
Drain You is a deconstruction of the Twilight template that's been used repeatedly in the YA scene. Or at least that’s how I like to think of it. It succeeds in a lot of respects and fails in others. James, the consciously mysterious vampire love interest is actually a pretty likable guy. He’s not a porcelain superhero, he’s a twenty-two-year-old kid who got drunk at a party and woke up dead. He’s just as insecure and socially clumsy as our heroine, Quinn. I like that he’s a bit of a coward, the same way I like the fact that Quinn is sincerely selfish. They’re both painfully normal – and I mean really painfully, the kind of way that makes you wince because you can understand why they have no idea what to do, and how they’re compelled towards stupidity. They’re young and much too powerful for their age. As James’ sister, Naomi, says of him, “Those parts of him that you love – the weak, nice human parts – are the exact reasons we can’t trust him to save us.”
Speaking of James’ family, the Sheets, I adore them. They are not an unapproachable brood, they’re just like every other teenager on Mulholland Drive in the summer – alone. Naomi is a bit too hysterical at points, but by the end, as she was holding an empty gas can in her flower sundress, she was giving me tingling feelings. And Whit, well, Whit is a gift in tortoise shell glasses. He’s James’ wittier, more confident, and straight up cooler younger brother. He provides the love triangle aspect that’s clearly necessary for this kind of story. Um, actually. Let’s take a moment and talk about that.
There’s James, who Quinn is in love with, and Whit who Quinn loves. And then there’s Morgan. I hate Morgan. With a passion. From the first pages it was obvious Morgan was a Nice Guy. He pined after Quinn even though she had made it clear she wasn’t interested. Sure, she loved being around him and moreso she loved his attention (as she says, rather beautifully and sincerely “I never wanted to hear him say he loved me, but I had to believe he felt it,” and I kind of hated myself for relating to that so much), but a hint’s a hint. She wouldn’t take rides to and from work from him, or a ride to a party that would suggest they were there together. She suggested other girls that he should date. And yet he keeps pushing, ignoring her refusals. Then he tries to kiss her when she’s fall-down drunk, and then gets pissed at her when she walks out on him. As if that weren’t enough to paint this guy as a Grade-A douchebag, Quinn has a moment of epic weakness when, missing James (yep, this book does the whole vampire-boyfriend-leaves-and-heroine-is-devastated thing too), she starts coming on to Morgan in an attempt to pretend he’s James. As if the scene weren’t icky enough, he says, “I’m not going to stop this. Even if I’m not sure you want to, I want to, so I’m going to.”
“Even if I’m not sure you want to, I want to, so I’m going to.”
“I’m not sure you want to”
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Just having to the type that out made me temporarily see red. Morgan, you are a mother fucking creep, get the fuck out. And yet, Quinn keeps on going on about how she’s so undeserving of his devotion, that every single time there’s an interaction between them its constant guilt tripping.
[image error]
Quinn, sweetie, this guy doesn’t respect you. He blatantly disregards your rejections, he’s not even interested if you consent to sex. There’s a word for guys like that. They’re called rapists.
To make matters worse, Morgan has no value whatsoever to the story, and I’m not really sure what the point to his creepiness was. He is treated like crap throughout most of the book, so that’s some consolation, but he’s never ever called on his shit. I’m pretty sure that if he had not been in this book, I would’ve been able to soundly give this four stars, but with him, no fucking way.
Thankfully there’s Whit, who doesn’t view Quinn as a piece of ass. He’s actually, like, her friend, and a pretty good one at that. "He did believe in supernatural stuff - both good and bad - because it was a reality in his life, but he also knew when to be human and let things be quiet. And when it got too quiet, he let me pretend like that was fine." He is utterly easy. As opposed to Morgan who holds grudges simply for being denied sex, Whit forgives Quinn within the span of a night and a morning after she pulled some serious, non-petty shit on him, not because he was taking the high road or some haughty moral shit, but because she’s his friend and it’s easier to stand by her than against her out of spite. There are only small hints at possible real feelings for her (she did get temporarily jealous when she sees him with another girl, to which he shrugs off with, "I'm really sexy, it's not your fault"), but generally he’s too preoccupied with his family problems for them to really go anywhere. Actually, I got the feeling that even if Quinn decided she loved them both, it would be ok. There’s never any real suggestion that she has to choose. When she tells Whit she loves him, he says, “You love too many people.” To which she responds, “That’s a stupid thing to say.” And really, how can you love too much? Quinn and Bloom may be on to something.
So I’ve spent way too much of this talking about boys. There is a bit of a plot here too, though not much. Thanks to the hyperrealistc approach, the story meanders to the point where it almost seems like contemporary YA instead of paranormal. But it suits the voice, and really I think it’s down to matter of taste. If you want a page turner, this is not it.
But I liked this. I liked the stark and slightly scattered prose, and I liked the ridiculously honest way people spoke, which is why I did so much quoting here and I still feel like I didn't do it justice. It’s the type of speech that you only hear from privileged white hipster kids who never get smacked in the mouth for speaking their mind. As said, its down to taste – if this kind of stuff annoys you, then steer clear. If not, turn on Lana del Rey and just go with it.
The voice is going to annoy the hell out of a lot of people. It is a product of its setting – Los Angeles, circa late 90s I think, considering the lack of cell phones and the continued unironic relevance of The Cure and James Spader – and as such is horribly vapid and up its own ass. The first twenty pages of ripped leggings, leopard bikini top, bowler hat, smudged multicolor nail polish, straw fedora tipped back, guys in denim shorts (no really, guys in denim shorts), and everyone has too much money and too much time and not enough parents I had to stop myself from facepalming until I had a big red imprint on my cheek. And then I got into it.
As pretentious as it is, as unapologetically hip every single word is, Bloom does in fact know what she’s doing. When you tap into the tremulous nature of youth, especially that of lost rich kids whose parents are in Cairo, at galas, don’t-forget-to-double-click-the-Lexus notes left on the pillow, you’re accessing what’s so damn creepy about being a teenager. Something that I always remember said about the movie Brick was that it was so effective because it was made by people young enough to remember how scary high school is. Walking home alone from work half-naked on hot summer night is fun and oh-so-quirky until all of a sudden it’s not, and your vulnerability, your mortality becomes profoundly real. That instead of the popular girl’s manic pixie best friend you are prey in every sense of the word. It’s what Brett Easton Ellis on one end, and Twillight on the other don’t have – the unraveled feeling of a lonely summer vacation.
Drain You is a deconstruction of the Twilight template that's been used repeatedly in the YA scene. Or at least that’s how I like to think of it. It succeeds in a lot of respects and fails in others. James, the consciously mysterious vampire love interest is actually a pretty likable guy. He’s not a porcelain superhero, he’s a twenty-two-year-old kid who got drunk at a party and woke up dead. He’s just as insecure and socially clumsy as our heroine, Quinn. I like that he’s a bit of a coward, the same way I like the fact that Quinn is sincerely selfish. They’re both painfully normal – and I mean really painfully, the kind of way that makes you wince because you can understand why they have no idea what to do, and how they’re compelled towards stupidity. They’re young and much too powerful for their age. As James’ sister, Naomi, says of him, “Those parts of him that you love – the weak, nice human parts – are the exact reasons we can’t trust him to save us.”
Speaking of James’ family, the Sheets, I adore them. They are not an unapproachable brood, they’re just like every other teenager on Mulholland Drive in the summer – alone. Naomi is a bit too hysterical at points, but by the end, as she was holding an empty gas can in her flower sundress, she was giving me tingling feelings. And Whit, well, Whit is a gift in tortoise shell glasses. He’s James’ wittier, more confident, and straight up cooler younger brother. He provides the love triangle aspect that’s clearly necessary for this kind of story. Um, actually. Let’s take a moment and talk about that.
There’s James, who Quinn is in love with, and Whit who Quinn loves. And then there’s Morgan. I hate Morgan. With a passion. From the first pages it was obvious Morgan was a Nice Guy. He pined after Quinn even though she had made it clear she wasn’t interested. Sure, she loved being around him and moreso she loved his attention (as she says, rather beautifully and sincerely “I never wanted to hear him say he loved me, but I had to believe he felt it,” and I kind of hated myself for relating to that so much), but a hint’s a hint. She wouldn’t take rides to and from work from him, or a ride to a party that would suggest they were there together. She suggested other girls that he should date. And yet he keeps pushing, ignoring her refusals. Then he tries to kiss her when she’s fall-down drunk, and then gets pissed at her when she walks out on him. As if that weren’t enough to paint this guy as a Grade-A douchebag, Quinn has a moment of epic weakness when, missing James (yep, this book does the whole vampire-boyfriend-leaves-and-heroine-is-devastated thing too), she starts coming on to Morgan in an attempt to pretend he’s James. As if the scene weren’t icky enough, he says, “I’m not going to stop this. Even if I’m not sure you want to, I want to, so I’m going to.”
“Even if I’m not sure you want to, I want to, so I’m going to.”
“I’m not sure you want to”
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Just having to the type that out made me temporarily see red. Morgan, you are a mother fucking creep, get the fuck out. And yet, Quinn keeps on going on about how she’s so undeserving of his devotion, that every single time there’s an interaction between them its constant guilt tripping.
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Quinn, sweetie, this guy doesn’t respect you. He blatantly disregards your rejections, he’s not even interested if you consent to sex. There’s a word for guys like that. They’re called rapists.
To make matters worse, Morgan has no value whatsoever to the story, and I’m not really sure what the point to his creepiness was. He is treated like crap throughout most of the book, so that’s some consolation, but he’s never ever called on his shit. I’m pretty sure that if he had not been in this book, I would’ve been able to soundly give this four stars, but with him, no fucking way.
Thankfully there’s Whit, who doesn’t view Quinn as a piece of ass. He’s actually, like, her friend, and a pretty good one at that. "He did believe in supernatural stuff - both good and bad - because it was a reality in his life, but he also knew when to be human and let things be quiet. And when it got too quiet, he let me pretend like that was fine." He is utterly easy. As opposed to Morgan who holds grudges simply for being denied sex, Whit forgives Quinn within the span of a night and a morning after she pulled some serious, non-petty shit on him, not because he was taking the high road or some haughty moral shit, but because she’s his friend and it’s easier to stand by her than against her out of spite. There are only small hints at possible real feelings for her (she did get temporarily jealous when she sees him with another girl, to which he shrugs off with, "I'm really sexy, it's not your fault"), but generally he’s too preoccupied with his family problems for them to really go anywhere. Actually, I got the feeling that even if Quinn decided she loved them both, it would be ok. There’s never any real suggestion that she has to choose. When she tells Whit she loves him, he says, “You love too many people.” To which she responds, “That’s a stupid thing to say.” And really, how can you love too much? Quinn and Bloom may be on to something.
So I’ve spent way too much of this talking about boys. There is a bit of a plot here too, though not much. Thanks to the hyperrealistc approach, the story meanders to the point where it almost seems like contemporary YA instead of paranormal. But it suits the voice, and really I think it’s down to matter of taste. If you want a page turner, this is not it.
But I liked this. I liked the stark and slightly scattered prose, and I liked the ridiculously honest way people spoke, which is why I did so much quoting here and I still feel like I didn't do it justice. It’s the type of speech that you only hear from privileged white hipster kids who never get smacked in the mouth for speaking their mind. As said, its down to taste – if this kind of stuff annoys you, then steer clear. If not, turn on Lana del Rey and just go with it.
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January 27, 2022This book is about the main character Quinlan Lacey. Quinlan is a 17 year old girl who has an odd obsession with diet coke. Quinlan “works” in a video store, notice the quotation marks considering she doesn’t really work that much when she is at work.
Quinn has a co-worker in love with her but she doesn't feel the same way and she has no idea how to break it to him lightly. Then she meets James who is mysterious and who walks her home without really walking with her. She is way too interested in him at first but doesn't question it just kind of goes with it. When she finds out what he is, she is freaked but she still is there for him. She then finds out more and more and to save the ones she loves she has to do something totally stupid and reckless. James is a vampire and was foreshadowing it to quin in the beginning of the book by saying “ I'm not safe ‘’. When she meets James' brother Whit and their relationship is weird. Like I said Quinn draws them in without really meaning too, she has no idea what she feels for Whit but there is something and when she goes out against James' wishes and does something extremely stupid she has no idea what to do. With Whit she is a totally different person, Shes kind of reckless and doesn't care about what anyone's telling her without realizing the consequences.
For me the most interesting part was when quin was finding out that James was a vampire . I found this part most interesting because it was so chaotic and so much happening at once. I would love to know more about quins parents and why they were so laid back and didn't care about what quin did at all.
Overall i recommend this book and i give it a 4/5. I think if u like romance and paranormal u would absolutely love this book. I just wish there was a better ending
Quinn has a co-worker in love with her but she doesn't feel the same way and she has no idea how to break it to him lightly. Then she meets James who is mysterious and who walks her home without really walking with her. She is way too interested in him at first but doesn't question it just kind of goes with it. When she finds out what he is, she is freaked but she still is there for him. She then finds out more and more and to save the ones she loves she has to do something totally stupid and reckless. James is a vampire and was foreshadowing it to quin in the beginning of the book by saying “ I'm not safe ‘’. When she meets James' brother Whit and their relationship is weird. Like I said Quinn draws them in without really meaning too, she has no idea what she feels for Whit but there is something and when she goes out against James' wishes and does something extremely stupid she has no idea what to do. With Whit she is a totally different person, Shes kind of reckless and doesn't care about what anyone's telling her without realizing the consequences.
For me the most interesting part was when quin was finding out that James was a vampire . I found this part most interesting because it was so chaotic and so much happening at once. I would love to know more about quins parents and why they were so laid back and didn't care about what quin did at all.
Overall i recommend this book and i give it a 4/5. I think if u like romance and paranormal u would absolutely love this book. I just wish there was a better ending
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