2 Bloggers 1 Book - My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf

 

To celebrate Vamptember, Stormi and I decided to buddy read a new Middle Grade book that just released.  She loves MG books, and I enjoy them from time to time so the timing of this one was perfect.  So read on to see my thoughts and the hop over to Stormi's at Storm Reads to see hers.

 

TITLE: My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf

AUTHOR: Paul Tobin

PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Children's Books

PUBLISHING DATE: September 3, 2024

PAGES: 272   

SOURCE: Own Library

FROM GOODREADS: Gabe and Hayden have a vampire.Joon and Tradd have a werewolf.And they're going to fight.

After modern society pushed monsters into hiding, the Crafters Guild formed - an organization of humans and other creatures intent on creating community amongst these exiled beings and combating the decline in monster mental health. Their solution? A no-holds-barred clash of the titans, where two monsters can fight it out with no limits. With young coaches like Gabe, Hayden, Joon, and Tradd to guide them, the monsters must prepare for a battle that will test their strengths, smarts, and special abilities. But it's just a friendly competition-nothing could possibly go wrong…right? 

My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf is the first in an epic horror series from bestselling author Paul Tobin featuring all your favorite monsters--from mummies and ghosts, to dragons and zombies, and witches and warlocks--daring to answer the Who would win in a fight?

MY THOUGHTS: I'm not really sure I know how I feel about this book.  Being middle grade it was a fairly quick read, and it features my two favorite supernatural entities so it should have been something I loved.  However, that didn't turn out to be quite the case.

So, we have two sets of youngest who are all no older than ten.  Two are teamed together to locate a vampire and the other two, a werewolf.  The book starts with the kids finding their creatures and explains a bit about how they use medallions to control them.  Once located, they are moved to another location where they plan to have their monsters battle each other.  I will say that once the battle started, the book picked up and it actually encompassed the last 1/3 of the book so if you like action, there is plenty of that.  The team that wins the battle gets to keep their medallions and when you collect three, you earn the wish of your choice.  These wishes are mentioned periodically and some of the kids have very concrete desires, but I don't know that they were fleshed out enough.

I had three major issues with this book.  First of all, the author portrayed these kids at 10 going on 40.  They did things way beyond an average 10-year-olds capacity and I had to keep reminding myself of their ages.  Second, the author style of writing also didn't fit a MG book.  He used words and concepts I just couldn't see a middle-grader understanding.  And finally, there wasn't enough backstory, and it took me at least the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book to figure out what was going on.

The action and the fact that we have a creepy vampire, and a fun werewolf named Redd really saved this one in the end.  I don't know if I will continue the series but for the most part, I am glad I gave this one a chance and it was a fun buddy read.

MY RATING: 3 PAWS