Blood Sinister by Celia Rees

Series: Point Horror Unleashed
Author: Celia Rees
Page Count: 224
Published: September 20th, 2002
Publisher: Scholastic Point
  3.5 Stars ★★★

Ellen is a teenage girl with a mysterious illness. A strange disease or ailment of the blood plagues her, and has her returning to hospitals time and time again. She fears that she may not have much time left.

She moves in with her grandmother, and comes across a series of diaries written by one of her ancestors, a female doctor also named Ellen. As she reads entry after entry, it becomes obvious that the older Ellen had come across a real-life vampire.

With the reappearance of a childhood friend, and the creepy sight of an old cemetery across the road from her grandmother's house, Ellen wishes that she could unravel the mysteries that plague both herself and her ancestor. But will she survive to uncover the truth?

This was a fairly quick read. I read it in one night, I found myself unable to put it down. However, this wasn't because the book was amazing.

It was definitely enjoyable, no mistake there. But there was something missing.

First off, the things I liked. I liked the way that vampires were creepy and not sexy. I love myself some sexy vampires, but a good old-fashioned monster is definitely also appreciated. I liked the way that the author told two stories at once, the story of the past and present Ellens. The diary entries were thorough and painted a clear picture of the past, while the modern Ellen's experiences were also well described and explained.

The mystery of Ellen's illness kept me reading. I really wanted to know what was wrong with her, and if she would survive. There was definitely some empathy from me concerning this situation, and Andy cared for Ellen in a way that made him immediately likeable.

There really should have been more in this book, though. More scenes, more action. A long book, with more character development and emphasis on creepy happenings would have bumped this book up to a four, maybe even a five star read. The base story was there, and certainly enjoyable, but with a little more time, this book could have been fantastic.



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