{"id":3130,"date":"2022-01-15T12:53:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T20:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=3130"},"modified":"2022-01-23T09:10:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T17:10:05","slug":"book-review-the-accursed-vampire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/book-review-the-accursed-vampire\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Accursed Vampire by Madeline McGrane"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>McGrane, Madeline. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/1262050945\"><i>The Accursed Vampire<\/i><\/a>. Quill Tree Books. 2021. $22.99. 176p. HC. 9780062954350<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3132 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/accursedfull.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/accursedfull.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/accursedfull-139x202.jpg 139w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This book breaks the mold. <i>The Accursed Vampire<\/i> is a funny, gripping, and profound adventure comic about a vampire who is joined by their friends on a quest. The fact that the main character uses they\/them pronouns is the least of its differences from other middle grade vampire fare. No discussions of gender identity, just pure anarchy and delight on the page.<\/p>\n<p>Kid readers will revel in Drago?s bad vampire ethos. They have clearly been drinking human blood, attacking strangers in need instead of helping them, and operating with a general disrespect for human life, but it is largely not pictured. It strikes the perfect balance for children looking for a genuinely dangerous character without exposing them directly to the violence they commit.<\/p>\n<p>And why does Drago live this way? What I really appreciated about this story was that it managed to be incredibly fun and silly while taking the characters and their backstories seriously. Drago is a recklessly impulsive vampire, sure. But they are also just a child dealing with the trauma of having been murdered instead of nurtured in their earliest years. There is a lot for readers to think critically about, if they are the thinking type. This could be a great book for talking about at home or reading together.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Accursed Vampire<\/i> is the future I want for kid lit. Highly recommended for young readers who are tired of being coddled.<\/p>\n<p>Reviewed by Ashley Dunne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McGrane, Madeline. The Accursed Vampire. Quill Tree Books. 2021. $22.99. 176p. HC. 9780062954350 This book breaks the mold. The Accursed Vampire is a funny, gripping, and profound adventure comic about a vampire who is joined by their friends on a quest. The fact that the main character uses they\/them pronouns is the least of its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1210,"featured_media":3133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}