Book Review: Team Human

TITLE: Team Human
AUTHOR: Justine Larbelestier and Sarah Rees Brennan
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Vampires, urban fantasy, parody/humor
PREMISE: Mel is not a fan of vampires. When a vampire starts going to her high school and her friend falls for him, she knows she has a big problem on her hands.
MY REVIEW: This my friends is the book I've been wanting since vampires became a thing in YA. First off, I will do a disclaimer: this is a parody. Book parodies are apparently not everyone's thing for some odd reason so there is a good chance you won't be a fan of it or of the humor (and admittedly some of the humor did wear thin at times). Luckily for the authors I adore book parodies. It's totally Terry Pratchett's fault. I've been waiting for a vampire parody since forever and here's one and it's glorious.
Okay yes, Mel can be annoying. Also some of the jokes did fall flat as they sometimes can in these types of books. But for the most part, this gave me a major happy. I think it's clever how it handles the vampire subject. It does mock it yes, but it does so lovingly and actually has arguements for both sides of the vampire arguement. Surprisingly it doesn't just bash vampire books for kicks (although there are one or two mocking grins Twilight's way but c'mon. It's TWILIGHT. If one does a vampire parody then one must include Twilight. It's like an unspoken rule) Also for a parody I thought the plot and the characters were pretty well done. There's diversity in the characters, Mel is called out on her flaws and she actually grows as a character, there's actual female friendship and the interaction/dialogue between the characters is fabulous.
So this is pretty much a personal favorite of mine. I loved it so much I'm thinking of giving Justine Larbelestier another chance despite being less then impressed with the one book of hers I've read. Perhaps Liar is better. But again, I must point out: parody. So I write this knowing there is about a fifty percent chance people who read this review may not love it as much as I did.
WHO SHOULD READ: Parody fans, Twilight fans with a sense of humor about the series, vampire fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five Team Human shirts because there need to be some.