Blood Is The New Black

by Valerie Stivers

The Devil may wear Prada, but real fashion taste is in the blood . . . When Kate gets offered an internship at top New York fashion mag Tasty, everyone tells her she's the luckiest girl alive. But it's not long before the office politics get to her. Her fellow interns are bitchy, her superiors are backstabbing, and she's constantly getting it in the neck from her chilly boss Lillian. But when people start to go missing, Kate starts to realise that there's something funny going on at Tasty. Why is everyone uniformly condescending, black-clad and emaciated? Doesn't anyone sleep? How come they all have such sharp teeth? Are they . . . vampires? Armed with a stake, a crucifix, and James the cute photo assistant, Kate sets off for a showdown - only to realise that she's more out of her depth than a homeless person in Hermès. Starting your first job may be difficult, but working at Tasty is draining. Literally . . .

Genres: Vampires, Fantasy, Chick Lit, Fiction, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ideally, I'd like to give 2.5 stars - on the basis I think it was better than a 2 star but not good enough for a "likeable" 3 stars.

I thought the vampire essence started off with an OK concept but then as the story progressed got worse and worse.
Something about the story just made me think the word "cheesy" the entire way through.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the chick-lit aspect of the book; but I felt that the vampire and fashion combination didn't mesh well. It was a slighlty ridiculous idea that just didn't work.

I also find it absured to understand that the book tells me anyone with style is a vampire. Isn't the concept of style different dependant upon different people? Something I may find fashionable may not be to others, and I find it hard to believe Kate had any style. The explainations of her outfits were quite disgusting in all honestly. Velvet ribbons with slips dresses and a denim mini-skirt? Sounds very unstylish to me - which means I'm obviously not cut out to be a vampire.

[Sian Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read through a bunch of one-star reviews for "Twilight" and found myself thinking, well, firstly, that I apparently have a weakness for vampires and other spookies (there's news, ha) but secondly, that the writers of those one-star reviews don't have enough experience in bad vampire novels, or at the very least haven't read "Blood is the New Black." This one is like: Meh. It's a slickly produced thing with an ending specifically tailored to a sequel. You can hear the cash register ca-chinging in the author's inner monologue. Do I want to play into that? No. So unless I happen across the sequel the same way I happened across this one -- at the new paperbacks rack at the library -- I will not be seeking it out. However, if I do happen across it in such a manner, it's probable I will check it out. But I watch the SciFi channel, so calibrate your expectations accordingly.

Oh, giving it two stars, not one, b/c I'm saving the ones so they mean something.

[pianogal · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like giving very negative reviews, but this book deserves one. The writing is insipid and unbelievable - even for vampires. Who gives up a promising medical career to work in the fashion industry against their will? Am I missing something? The whole premise wishes it were "Ugly Betty" meets "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It would have to come up quite a ways to ever hope to compare to either one of these ideas. I made it to about page 50, and I'm sorry that I didn't stop sooner. I tried to finish it, I really did, but I just have too many other books that are actually worth my time.

[✨Jinglemarco✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny and compelling novel!

[TheVampireBookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for people who liked The Devil Wears Prada but the boss wasn't bloodthirsty enough. So here you have it, a fashion magazine owned by vampires.
When a young naive girl gets an internship in the house, her whole life changes. She must find out who is a vampire and who isn't because her life depends on it. There are way too many murders in fashion industry these days and it's up to her to find out the murderer before she winds up as a snack.
She is faced with confusing coworkers who hate each other as they are all trying to climb the social and work ladder and who aren't friendly to begin with. So who to choose as an ally? Maybe the hot photographer? But that's her boss's boytoy it seems. Fashion industry is a very difficult world to enter.
It was a nice holiday read. As I'm not that into fashion, the gossipy and murderously toxic environment wasn't something I was interested in reading but the author managed not to bore me to death which is a really good thing. There were also very funny facts about vampires - like with thirst also the urge to shop rises.
Overall it's not a bad book to ease your mind off your own work because as you'll se here, it could be worse- someone could go after your neck.

[jace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5 - low 3

"Blood Is the New Black" was self-aware, sarcastic, and ironic at times. The book didn't take itself too seriously, which is what allowed itself to get away with some of the ridiculousness at times.

Fun, but ultimately not serious or exceptionally rememberable. I love fashion books, and this Devil Wears Prada x Vampire Hunter was lighthearted and a quick read.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come un paio di decoltè da una notte e via!

Leggere questo libro non mi è costata alcuna fatica, anzi mi ha molto caricato per diversi motivi.Lo consiglierei per la frizzosità della moda che esprime e di come l'autrice abbia voluto dare un significato sarcastico a molte motivazioni del nostro contesto odierno.
Per il resto è solo una di quelle fresche letture da ombrellone estivo che ti ingannano e ti lasciano la mente leggera come una piuma. Non me la sento di disprezzarlo pienamente ma di dargli una sufficienza moooolto rasentata per diversi motivi.
I personaggi sono curati e particolari nella loro semplicità e nell'espressione emblematica di ciò che rappresentano nel privato (come Vamp) e nel campo lavorativo nel mondo che risiedono. Ma oltre questo non sono altro che piccole formiche pronte a vivere, a procacciarsi il cibo e a gozzovigliare disinteressati a tutto ciò che non è Modè!
La parte finale è pienamente libera di qual si voglia epilogo possibile o eventuale dell'autrice ma non lascia alcun sintomo di interesse o altro nel lettore che può semplicemente rimanere curioso sulle eventuali novità che la protagonista Kate vorrà intraprendere nel campo sentimentale e lavorativo ma senza lasciare altri sentori.
E' un po' amaro ma non necessariamente. Un giusto tocco tra tre serie televisive/cinematografiche (Buffy, Ugly Betty e Il diavolo veste Prada) che la scrittrice ha saputo ben amalgamare a lasciando la parte emozionale e avventuresca toni piatti e statici. Ci si sorprende come facilmente i Vamp possono essere soggiogati da dei comune mortali/spuntini, lasciando increduli anche i Vampiri più famosi come Angel e Jean-Claude!

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fresh off of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, I saw this book at Barnes & Noble and borrowed it from my library. It looked full of promise for a different type of chicklit book (similar to Meg Cabot's Avalon High or even Jinx). But instead I slowly had to wade through (I still can't believe I finished it) a misdirected plot, jump-the-shark tactics and characters that needed more background and development. The book was also so poorly edited that I often had to go back and re-read sentences because they didn't make sense. The author set up the ending for a sequel, maybe she can make her second book a worthwhile read.

[Deebles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate McGraw, currently a pre-med graduate and EMT with plans to return to school after the summer gets convinced to take a summer internship at teen fashion magazine Tasty in New York by her aunt. All is not as it seems and after a couple of murders Kate discovers she is working for vampires.

This is not quite my usual type of book, as it is a little too "chick lit" for me, but made a nice distraction and was an entertaining and quick read, It was a "Devil wears Prada" scenario but with vamps.

[Emma Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
This book was hardly a literary award winner but it is exactly what it claims to be: a book about fashion vampires. And it was enjoyable for that reason. It didn't promise anything wonderful and it felt like a very self-aware piece. There were a few moments of creativity and originality, as well as a lot of moments of genre stereotypes. Overall, not a fantastic book but very enjoyable

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exactly like The Devil Wears Prada except the people running the magazine are vamps and Devil Wears Prada was much better. Pure brain candy/beach read.

[Lucia Bradbury]

I loved it. It was so detailed and interesting, there were many surprises especially about the characters. It was definitely hard to stop reading.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 🌟 This had been sitting on my shelves half read for years and years and I was delighted to find hand written definitions for words I didn’t know at the time transcribed in 🤭 Read in one sitting!

[Valentina Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cercavo una lettura leggera e ho fatto centro!
L'ho trovato godibile e frizzante fino agli ultimi capitoli, da lì in poi si susseguono ogni genere di azioni di cui forse si era sentita un po' la mancanza nei capitoli precedenti.
Ne consegue che il finale si svolge in modo un po' troppo veloce e poco entusiasmante.
Inoltre, per certi versi è veramente fin troppo scontato... alcune delle 'rivelazioni' più attese le avevo intuite molto molto prima.
Non è stata una lettura sgradevole, ma non è nemmeno Shakespeare!
È un classico libro da ombrellone o da sabato pomeriggio poco impegnativo, è piacevole ma consiglio di non avere grosse aspettative, altrimenti potreste rovinarvi qualche ora di frivolo svago 😉

[Meredith Inglis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in 2007 and it is now 2020. I am trying to catalogue all the books I have read and am adding this one.

I remember at that time of my life, I was really into Vampires. (Twilight. True Blood. Vampire Diaries, etc)

Wow. I was in my early twenties and this just brings me back. I can say I am now mid thirties and have gotten past the vampire craze. ;) Finally.

I do remember enjoying this little paperback when I had it. Again, that’s as a 23 year old not as a 36 year old, today.

I am Back to the Future.

[Casey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was poorly written, clunky and super predictable. Nothing was left to the imagination, the mysterious 'blood-red' liquids that she saw everyone drinking, their suspiciously pointy incisors and that they make comments about being super old and bored with their menial existence... and the main character still doesn't catch on. Very cliche and if I'm honest, quite lame. Disappointing :(

[Courtney Chappell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me one day to read and I am very glad it only took me that long. A couple of times I actually had to put the book down just to comment on the stupidity of it to others near me. This book was just really cheesy and not in a good one. And the way things were solved seemed to just all come together perfectly. I would not read it again.

[Giuliana Unlibropersognaregiuly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cosa accadrebbe se durante uno stage negli uffici di una prestigiosa rivista di moda vi rendeste conto che tutti i vostri colleghi, con poche eccezioni, sono vampiri?
Un libro piacevole, leggero ma carino. Come è scritto sul retro di copertina, un mix tra "Il diavolo veste Prada" e una storia moderna sui vampiri.

[Gen · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like 2.5, but still not good enough for me to give a 3. It's trashy but kinda fun. Girl gets an internship at a fashion magazine and finds out her bosses are all murderous vampires. Pretty sure it's not the only book I've read from the mid-late 2000s with this plot also (girl gets highly prized fashion-adjacent intern that requires moving in with a rich aunt and involves vampires).

[Billie Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dad said if you don't have anything nice to say...don't say anything at all. Actually, I DID like the main character, but not enough to overlook it being a first book and that fact showing through.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Devil wears Prada but with vampires.

[Brooke Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a cross of the devil wears Prada and buddy the vampire slayer…. Quick read.. nothing earth shattering

[Vee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gossip Girl meets Devil Wears Prada, a fun and silly little time with vampires thrown in for good measure.

[Raven Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cliche and a bit predictable? Yeah, for sure. It was a funny and easy read that entertained me. Nothing to write home about, but I liked it well enough.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up

[Memoriarty · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Edit] Consiglio spassionato: non leggete questo libro se avete intenzione di leggere anche Intervista Col Vampiro di Anne Rice. C'è uno spoiler abbastanza grande.

Lettura in generale facile e divertente, se non si è alla ricerca di un titolo serio ed impegnato può risultare anche piacevole. Lo consiglio a chiunque voglia una lettura disimpegnata, rapida.
La storia in sé è abbastanza banale, i personaggi non spiccano per personalità e viene posta più enfasi su ciò che indossano piuttosto che su ciò che pensano; ma questo ben si sposa con l'ambientazione della storia. Senza grandi aspettative questo libro si legge meglio.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very funny, to me it's like the program Ugly Betty if everyone involved in the fashion industry was a vampire. If you haven't seen this program, it's about a girl with no fashion sense whatsoever, that works for a company that publishes a fashion magazine, where she doesn't fit in.

The first time I read this book, I though it was entertaining, however I myself are no fashion expert, I adore the Gothic/Alternative fashion so that would also make me a misfit in society like Ugly Betty.
I enjoyed reading this book, but I didn't always understand the fashion references, to certain fashion designers or styles of clothing or looks that have created. To be honest, I wish that there was a little less emphasis on that and more emphasis on the characters that the main character could relate to. Kate the main character and James have a least one thing common that they are both anti-fashion, due to all the models or anyone that's involved in the fashion industry looks the same.
They are all skinny, pale, dressed immaculately, and they all live on a liquid diet of human blood (described as red berry juice or a smoothie, since that's how Kate describes it in the book)It's human blood, because everyone she works with is a vampire.
Kate finds out, that there is something weird going on, while she is at work for her internship at Tasty magazine. Someone keeps staring at her, from behind the photocopier, her boss stares at her for long periods of time, all the staff sleep during the day, in their offices in secret. All of the staff seem to drink this red berry juice as is described by Kate in the but, it isn't a smoothie.

The best thing about this book is the humor, since Kate's mother was a fashion designer, it's a big deal to the staff at Tasty magazine. Although Kate doesn't want to be known as Eva's daughter, she wants to work on her own merit, and be recognized for her own work. I like the fact, that at least two of the characters in the book, are
anti-fashion, since not everyone will be a part of the industry, not everyone will fit in, due to the requirements.You have be petite, to be considered pretty, so all the staff members starve themselves, until, a dog is found dead in a supply cupboard. Kate finds out who is responsible and why. If you like reading paranormal romance or just books about vampires with a sense of humor then you will like this book.
I am obsessed with vampires so I will read any books about vampires as long as it's funny, or about the co-habitation of humans and supernatural creatures and the things that go wrong, in their daily lives.
If you like vampires then, I would recommend this book to you.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a cute, fun, mystery-lite read. The prose is kind of springy but also has good descriptions. The novel centers around Kate, a nice girl with a homemade fashion sense who has stayed away from fashion ever since her mother, Eva, once a rising fashionista herself, became estranged from her family. Kate is planning to go to medical school to become a doctor when her aunt Victoria scores her an internship with the high fashion magazine "Tasty". The beginning parts of the book were really fun and reminded a little of "Ugly Betty" (the TV show), which was a cool reminder as well as ironic how easy it would be to imagine those slaves to fashion bitches as (secretly) vampires.

I was engaged more with the beginning and the middle of the book, while Kate was still innocent of her coworkers' true natures, and there were valid (but still on that mystery-lite scale) strange occurrences and deaths that concerned Kate and seemingly no one else. But after Kate found about the vampires, and confronted them, the plot and the sense started to unravel and fell completely apart by the end.

I'm always up for a retelling on the vampire myth (I'm still not offended that Stephanie Meyer's vampires "sparkle" in the sunlight), but I have to say it was difficult to suspend my disbelief enough to cover the reasons behind how people became vampires in this novel and what vampire bites did to a person. For example, people could only be transformed into vampires if they had "the style gene", and any one the vampires bit were called "blood donors"; apparently, the bite of a vampire makes a person want to shop and go to Fashion Week in Paris, and eventually seek out vampires to bite them. After Kate is bitten by a vampire named Lillian, she has to resist a strong urge to go some designer store and just window-shop. It was kind of off the wall.

I was also disappointed that Kate, who seems to be a fairly intelligent young women with wits about, couldn't figure out who the "fashion murderer" was without being told. Earlier in the book she makes a comment to herself about something that has happened and chides herself for "not reading/knowing" the patient and listening to/seeing the signs (she was an EMT before becoming the "Tasty Girl" intern), so I have to wonder why she couldn't put two and two together herself, about that and about her love interest.

Overall, it was fun and fast but not witty or sharp enough to deserve four stars.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood is the new Black

Kate McAlliston, giovane studentessa, accetta di lavorare come stagista presso una prestigiosa rivista di moda, <>. Dopo le prime angherie e umiliazioni da parte delle colleghe e della direttrice, quando finalmente Kate sta conquistando un piccolo spazio per sé, all'improvviso ha il terribile sospetto che l'intero staff sia composto da vampiri. Incredula, decide di indagare sul misterioso segreto che si nasconde tra le mura dell'ufficio. Tra strane abitudini e sotterfugi rivelatori, scoprirà la verità: la direttrice è davvero a capo di un esercito di vampiri, ma non ha nessuna intenzione di lasciare trapelare la notizia...

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Sono accovacciata sotto una scrivania nello stanzino delle assistenti. Loro sanno che sono qui. Sono sicura che sentono il mio odore, o percepiscono la mia presenza in qualche modo. Sapevo che lavorare da <> sarebbe stato un bagno di sangue, ma non immaginavo davvero che lo fosse in senso così strettamente letterale. Ero preparata ad affrontare ogni sorta di vanità, ma di certo non i vampiri! Ho la pelle d'oca, come la prima volta che mi sono sentita osservata da dietro la fotocopiatrice. I passi distanti di poco fa si stanno avvicinando. Ormai ci siamo, questo rumore di tacchi a spillo è il suono più terrificante che abbia mai sentito. Non so esattamente a quale vamp appartengano questi in particolare, ma sono sicura che siano diretti qui.
Ho il paletto con me. Non ho nessun altro posto in cui nascondermi. C'è solo una cosa da fare.
Aspettare che sia lei a trovarmi.

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Veramente spassoso, questo romanzo coniuga chick lit e letteratura vampiresca in un unico strano ma piacevolissimo ibrido. Leggerissimo ma ironico si legge in un batter d'occhio!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn't have a boss like Miranda Priestly, it doesn't have a repetitious slogan such as, "a million girls would kill for this job!" and it isn't an office with two assistants. With these exceptions "Blood is the New Black" is much like the book, "Devil Wears Prada" with a vampire twist.

These characters go by some of the same rules as Devil Wears Prada, their boss is Lillian not Miranda but in both books tell you can't ride in the same elevator as them, and there's dress size, at Tasty you can't be bigger than a size six, at Runaway you are most likely laughed at if you are not a size four or less.

Second, the main character in both these books are women, but while Andie Sachs has no sense of fashion and is by fashion standards considered "fat" Kate McGraw on the hand has a fashion sense, Kate refurbishes her mother's fashions, (her mother was a fashion designer) or she makes her own clothes. Kate may trump Andie in the fashion department but there is one thing these two characters have in common, neither one of them wanted a job in fashion.

Andie desired to be a writer and working at Runway seemed to be her only chance to get ahead or at the very least get a good reference and Kate McGraw was on her way to becoming an EMT and getting into medical school. The last thing comparing these stories is neither Andie nor Kate knew exactly what they were getting into when they stepped into the world of fashion.