A review by remus_reads
Don't Want To Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
Overall
I really liked this book and I didn’t expect that from a middle grade book. I should probably read more middle grade.
Plot
I really liked the plot and was very interested in what would happen next. I read the book very quickly and enjoyed the whole story.
Characters
One thing that really stood out to me was that all the characters felt like real people. Normally I only really care about the main characters, but with this book I truly wanted to know everyones story.
If Deke told me that it was actually a true story and that Adam and Victor really existed I would believe her in an instant.
Another thing I love is the found family dynamic in the form of adopted/foster family. Thats something that works very well in vampire story’s and I liked Deke’s execution of it.
Representation
Queer: Adam’s and Victor’s parents are sapphic and their sibling uses they/them pronouns.
Cultures: The fact that they are vampires means that they’re not blood related and are from very different cuktures. It’s interesting to learn a bit about these cultures snd to see them represented in a casual way.
Jewish: It’s a culture too but I think it deserves a separate mention.
One thing that I really loved was the jewish represantation and the way Deke changed the vampire myths to remove the antisemitism. I’m not jewish so I didn’t know and didn’t notice that vampire stories are rooted in antisemitism. Once I read the author’s noteI could truly appreciate the things Deke changed about the popular vampire lore.
The idea that vampires are variation of the norm and not an abnormality and not monsters is great. I also liked that there was a good reason why thevimpares needed blood and not “just because”.
I really liked this book and I didn’t expect that from a middle grade book. I should probably read more middle grade.
Plot
I really liked the plot and was very interested in what would happen next. I read the book very quickly and enjoyed the whole story.
Characters
One thing that really stood out to me was that all the characters felt like real people. Normally I only really care about the main characters, but with this book I truly wanted to know everyones story.
If Deke told me that it was actually a true story and that Adam and Victor really existed I would believe her in an instant.
Another thing I love is the found family dynamic in the form of adopted/foster family. Thats something that works very well in vampire story’s and I liked Deke’s execution of it.
Representation
Queer: Adam’s and Victor’s parents are sapphic and their sibling uses they/them pronouns.
Cultures: The fact that they are vampires means that they’re not blood related and are from very different cuktures. It’s interesting to learn a bit about these cultures snd to see them represented in a casual way.
Jewish: It’s a culture too but I think it deserves a separate mention.
One thing that I really loved was the jewish represantation and the way Deke changed the vampire myths to remove the antisemitism. I’m not jewish so I didn’t know and didn’t notice that vampire stories are rooted in antisemitism. Once I read the author’s noteI could truly appreciate the things Deke changed about the popular vampire lore.
The idea that vampires are variation of the norm and not an abnormality and not monsters is great. I also liked that there was a good reason why thevimpares needed blood and not “just because”.