Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Pages: 302

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pub. Date: March 27, 2007

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires. The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.  The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?  Could those vampire legends really be true?"

Schuyler Van Alen goes to Duschesne, an expensive private school in New York City.  Her classmates are wealthy, wear couture, and are pretty much the opposite of her.  Schuyler has one friend, Oliver, that she can count on and she's fine with that.  Shockingly, a fellow student is murdered at her school and she finds out that the murderer may be targeting Blue Bloods, a group of influential vampires that are immortal.  On Schuyler's fifteenth birthday, she realizes that she is a Blue Blood as well and starts to worry that she is in danger. On top of that, Jack Force, the popular guy at school, starts paying attention to her, which is highly unusual since he didn't give her the time of day before.  Schuyler has many questions about the Blue Bloods and readers follow her on her journey to hopefully some answers.  Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz is an interesting start to a series, but unfortunately, it wasn't for me.


One thing about the novel that I enjoyed was de la Cruz's take on vampires and how they came over on the Mayflower.  What a cool idea! She portrays them as taking part in United States history and being extremely powerful.  The author weaves an interesting background story on vampires and how they are hiding their secret of immortality and past lives.  This is definitely one unique part of the story that held my interest.


On the other hand, I couldn't connect to any of the characters, mostly because I felt like it was Blair Waldorf, from Gossip Girl, in a spin-off of Twilight. The author included more details about high fashion and what was being worn than the actual plot of the story. It drove me nuts. Now don't get me wrong! I enjoy stories that discuss fashion and what the characters were wearing as long as they also develop the plot and in this case, I felt like it was lacking on the latter.  And due to this, I couldn't empathize with any of the characters. I was disappointed by this, because I felt that the plot had a lot of potential.


For these reasons, this novel fell short for me. I know a lot of people, including many of my students, are fans of this series, but I don't see what the great attraction is.  Do I think it's a fun and entertaining read? Yes. Do I think it's a book-I-must-have-now? Unfortunately, no.  With that said, I don't recommend this series unless you are a big fan of a vampire meets Gossip Girl mash-up, but without the awesome Chuck Bass.  

*Buy Blue Bloods

*Watch the Blue Bloods trailer