adorned with Pravus purple in its series title, series number, author name, and iconic fanged smiley, Tenth Grade Bleeds, the midpoint of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, proves to be one of the series' darkest, most emotionally damaging entries.
Damaging not only for poor Vlad, but for we the readers as well, especially when we get firsthand glimpses of Vlad's tortured psyche, It gets to the point where he even commits selfharm as all his life stresses Otis not being there for him, his friendship with Henry on the rocks due to the inherent inequality of their vampdrudge power balance, missing Joss despite his betrayal, balancing his burgeoning romance with Meredith and his budding friendships with the goths, Eddie Poe being, well, Eddie Poe, and D'Ablo lurking around and sending another adversary after Vlad.
. .
oh, and the sheer indignity of highschool health class, Why my library puts this book in the middlegrade section instead of YA, I couldn't tell you,
Z Brewer here, once again, gives us a work of surprising genius, The novel is a collection of small moments, and some big action set pieces too, but all strung along on a connection worthy of the webs woven by a certain wallcrawler played by the likes of Maguire, Holland, and Garfield.
Seriously, if you don't pick this series up and give it a shot, . . why not EDIT: Changed Brewer's name and pronouns,
Tenth Grade Bleeds is the third installment in The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, I have to admit that I am so tired of this series even though I've only got two to go, I hope to get through them quickly so I can leave Zac Brewer and Vladimir Tod behind me,
Now in tenth grade, Vladimir Tod has furthered his vampire training and come to accept the fact that he is the Pravus, But now Vlad has to deal with Otis once again disappearing with no contact and D'ablo threatening to kill him, And Vlad now gets to deal with the added bonus of his potentially crumbling relationship with Henry and his sudden hunger for more blood,
Plot
The plot in Tenth Grade Bleeds is the same it's been in the previous two book.
Vladimir being angsty over the smallest things, high school, and a small bit of vampireness actually thrown in, At this point in the series I can definitely say that the plot is repeating itself, That's what brought this book down to a one star review, Ninth Grade Slays's saving point was the improvement in writing but that novelty has worn off and the reader is once again faced with Brewer's boring plots.
I think if the books were shorter then they wouldn't be as boring, Eighth Grade Bites was bad because of it's writing but it wasn't all that boring, The story in Ninth Grade Slays and Tenth Grade Bleeds gets too stretched out to be enjoyable, Brewer doesn't have enough plot to make her books last the entire school year, hence all the time skips in the book,
The plot is a bare bones one that Brewer tries to make better by filling it with fluff,
Writing
The writing was alright, Brewer has been getting better with writing, I can admit that, He's still not good at writing scenes where nothing important is going on though, If Brewer had a more plot heavy story then I would probably like her books a lot better, As it stands, her writing cannot make up for the plot alone,
A big problem in the writing is the repetition of things, Do you know the only word Brewer uses to describe Vlad's purple eyes Iridescent, Look it up every time he talks about his eyes changing colors that word is always in the sentence,
The only other thing I don't like about her writing is how he does the action scenes, Any time there's an action scene he writes them in these big paragraphs, The
big paragraphs mess up the feel of urgency and tensity in certain scenes, In action sequences things are constantly changing and with those changes should come paragraphs describing them, These long paragraphs just don't work,
Characters
Oh, Vlad, I mentioned in my second review of your story that I would only like you if you released Henry as your drudge, I was wrong. You were willing to release your drudge and I still can't stand you, Vladimir Tod is a thickheaded fool, He does things that are deliberately stupid without thinking about it first, Like throwing away the Lucis and not killing D'ablo because "he was Tomas's friend", who you apparently forgot tried to kill you three times now.
Vlad is also still very foolish at heart and unless he really grows as a character I don't seem myself liking him in the near future.
I've come to like Henry a little bit more, He's started standing up against Vlad and acting as like an actual person would, His character is still flat, though, Same goes for Otis. There is also Meredith, who we get to see a lot more but whom we still know nearly nothing about, I couldn't make myself care about her or Vlad's relationship with her, Meredith could have been replaced by an inanimate object and still have been the same character,
D'ablo, our main antagonist, is just as foolish as Vladimir Tod, The things he does and the way he goes about them make no sense, I feel like D'ablo could have been a much better villain but Brewer had to make him easier to defeat for Vlad, He's a cookie cutter villain that wants to control the world but can't manage to kill a fifteen year old halfvampire,
All the characters are boring and flat and I don't care one bit about them,
Things I Didn't Like
I didn't like anything in this book but I'll narrow it down to my two biggest grievances: the boring, repetitive plot and the lack of vampire folklore.
I've already gone over my problems with the plot, This is the third book and the plot follows the same pattern as the previous two books, My main problem is with the vampire folklore,
Brewer has never given any straight explanation how her vampires differ from classic vampires, We know for a fact that they do differ Vlad and his ilk aren't affected by crosses, silver, or holy water, But they are affected by the sun, Brewer sort of hinted that her vampires are allergic to the sun in varying degrees but we never get a full explanation, I'm pretty sure Brewer is just making up her vampire mythology as he goes instead of starting out with the limits and abilities of her vampires all planned out.
Diversity
The characters are all the same as the previous two books, The character named Snow may have been East Asian but if she was then it was racist the way Brewer described her, But I can't be sure if she is or not because the text never confirms it,
Overall
I felt the same way about this book as I have the first two books, The plot is spread thin over and entire school year while it could be more enjoyable if condensed some, Because of this the book goes by slowly and it's more than a bit boring, If the titles of the books are anything to go by, I hope Vlad dies in Twelfth Grade Kills because there are much better books about teenage vampires out there.
sitelinkHere is a link to my notes, Vladimir Tod has been learning a lot about his vampire abilities, Otis has spent the summer training him on extending his telepathic communication, He is also getting better at sensing when other vampires are near, Both Vlad and his Aunt Nelly have gotten used to Otis being around and hate to see him go, but since Otis is still a fugitive in the vampire community, he knows in order to keep them safe, he must leave.
Vlads life seems to be going great, He has the girl of his dreams by his side and everything just seems brighter when she is around, Meredith is headoverheels for him no matter what her friends say,
A few things are getting in the way of his happygolucky attitude though, To start with there is the pesky Eddie and his brand spankin new camera, the terrible mood causing Henry, his best friend and drudge, to pull away from him, and his growing need for blood.
Also causing him problems are the terrible nightmares that have been interrupting his sleep, Dreams of viscious attacks filled with blood and pain keep waking him in the middle of the night, It really worries Vlad when he cant contact Otis for help and advise, So, for the most part, Vlad is on his own,
Heather Brewer has written a wonderful addition to The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series, Vlad becomes more and more likeable as his kindness and soft heart keep showing through, The thing that sets this book apart from the others in the series is the tone, TENTH GRADE BLEEDS takes on a more mature tone as Vlad deals with his relationship issues with Meredith and Henry and even more so when adapting to his increased blood lust.
The ending leaves the reader begging for more, TENTH GRADE BLEEDS is the best book in the series so far, It is exciting to think about what the future has in store for Vlad,
In Tenth Grade Bleeds, it's another sucky year at Bathory High for Vladimir Tod, The evil vampire D'Ablo is hunting for the ritual that could steal Vlad's powers, His best friend Henry doesn't want to be his drudge anymore, And as if all that weren't enough, it's getting harder for Vlad to resist feeding on the people around him, When months go by with no word from Uncle Otis and D'Ablo shows up demanding Vlad's father's journal, Vlad realizes that having a normal high school year is the least of his concerns.
Vlad needs to act fast, and even his status as the Pravus won't save him this time, . . This was a.in some spots, but I'll keep it at four, Y'all Meredith is written so bad, Her characterization is pink, bubbly, feminine and that's it, She has no other personality, I wish she was included in the humor,
I was kinda hoping she'd become one of the team and be given more attention, but here we are, Snow had more development than Meredith, and she was in two scenes,
Also, Shia Labeouf voice DO IT, Horror
Darien Munden
Tenth grade bites, but for Vladimir Tod, that's just a fact of life, Its not easy dealing with teenage angst, young love, and a failing friendship, especially when your halfvampire! Ever since Tod's "uncle" Otis showed up a year and a half ago Vlad, as he likes to be called, has had to deal with the potential reality that he may be the legendary Pravus, an immortal vampire descended to rule all vampires and enslave the human race.
No pressure for Vlad, right He's only got to deal with a vampire named D'Ablo trying to rip his heart out literally! while trying to fight his cravings for his girlfriend, Meredith's, blood.
Highschool couldn't get much worse, or could it Not only is this the third book in the series, but its also the most violent by far! I'm not particularly fond of vampire novels and this book is a lot more violent than the Twilight series.
Not for anyone with a weak stomach for blood and gore, For those that do have the gumption: Cheers! I like Vladmir Todd as a young vampire, but this book is better than the past two books.
I greatly fond of Drudge and vampire relationship, sitelinkHeather Brewer is one my favorite writer with the exemplary skills in forging words with the emotions in appropriate proportion.
If you read the past books of Chronicle series you will definitely like it better than the past two books, I loved this book and i love this series, Rated amp ed
Stars:
Your heart will go bleed for Vald and his family as this epic tale continues,
Among some of my favorites, Outstanding literary work. The characters are well developed, interesting, The liked characters are likable and the hated are unlikable, The writing is captivating enough to keep you interested until the end and leave you wanting more, It has a fairly original or uniquely welldeveloped plot, The pretense and romance were well balanced and done with properly distributed amounts of hints, behaviors, and chemistry, Not so much predictable if at all, Overall, loved it, I recommend reading!!
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An ecopy was provided to me by NetGalley and/or the Author, and/or the publishers, No payment was received by me in exchange for this review, There was not any obligation to write a positive review, All opinions expressed here are entirely mine and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, the Tenth Grade Bleeds's publisher and publicist, or the readers of this review.
This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission'sCFR, Part, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, A bit darker than the second book of the series, Henry is angry about his drudgeship and their friendship is on the rocks, Vlad is having nightmares and has absolutely no one in his life to talk to about a slip up he has, Vlad acts a little too much like a teenage boy in this one and I keep telling him to tell the truth, but he doesn't listen to me.
: Lots of angst here and more intrigue, More mysteries uncovered and a trial coming up, I'm glad to see that vampire justice is as slow as human justice, :
Content notes: violence/gore, mild swearing, kissing,