Team Human

by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan

Readers who love vampire romances will be thrilled to devour Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan. Team Human celebrates and parodies the Twilight books, as well as other classics in the paranormal romance genre.
 
Mel is horrified when Francis Duvarney, arrogant, gorgeous, and undead, starts at her high school. Mel’s best friend, Cathy, immediately falls for the vampire. Cathy is determined to be with him forever, even if having him turn her could inadvertently make her a zombie.
 
And Mel is equally determined to prove to her BFF that Francis is no good, braving the city’s vampire district and kissing a cute boy raised by vampires as she searches evidence in this touching and comic novel.

• ISBN10: 0062089641
• ISBN13: 9780062089649
• Publish Date: 3 July 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amanda]

A young adult paranormal novel is a big switch from the historical romances I've been reading lately, but Team Human was the perfect palette cleanser---and far more entertaining than the usual "Let's watch the Minnesota Vikings lose" Sunday afternoon. Ahem. The downside to binge reading within the same genre is that after a while, everything starts sounding similar. It's why tossing books like Team Human into the mix is so important.

Plus, Team Human is good enough to stand on its own too and not just because it's an atypical vampire story. It's funny and lighthearted. It's frustrating in your typical YA fashion. It's got just enough of a mystery to be intriguing. And it has enough general non-preachy life lessons to make it worthwhile. Friends change. You can't control your life or decisions other than your own. Don't rush into a decision---and don't do something just because it's what's expected of you. All good stuff.

I'm almost a little sad Team Human is a standalone. I would've picked up its sequel in a heartbeat. That said, hooray for standalones! Team Human works perfectly as a standalone, with just enough world building to make it real to us without bogging us down. It's not necessarily a place I'd want to live, but I was intrigued. And that's good stuff.

[elvinagb]

I only wish I could give this 6 stars! Loved this book, so much. Thank you Justine and Sarah.

[notajammiedodger]

Before I read this book, I was honestly expecting it to be a cute, fluffy love story of sorts (well as fluffy as it can be with vampires anyway). Which there is absolutely nothing wrong with; Anna and the French Kiss was a story like that, and it is one of my favourite reads of the year. But Team Human is definitely not one of those stories; it had an intense mystery story line. Which I really enjoyed.

For unknown reasons a mysterious vampire boy in a strange sun-proof suit turns up at Mel, Cathy and Anna's school. He immediately catches the attention of Cathy, a friend of Mel's who has always had an interest in vampires. Mel must decide whether to try convincing Cathy that being with a vampire is a bad idea, and in the process risk damaging their friendship or let Cathy be with someone that makes her happy, even if he is a vampire.

I loved Mel's character, and how against vampire she is. I also loved her voice; the things she thought and said were hilarious.

"Who choose the possibility of immortality over chocolate?" - page. 34

"They looked lost in each other's eyes. Like I would need to make a tiny eye map for each of them to be able to find their way out." - page. 113

I loved Kit's character; how clueless he was about humans was absolutely adorable. I loved all of the other characters as well. Kit's mum, Camille, was super sweet. Cathy was a bit two dimensional, I feel like her character wasn't very well fleshed out. And I liked Ty.

The mystery side of this book was the kind where I couldn't really figure anything out. And while I liked that, it also annoyed me at the same time. I can predict the ending of books too much, but I really enjoy a book that keeps me trying to work things out, throughout Team Human I couldn't really come up with any theories. But I still enjoyed it, it was shocking and exciting at all the right moment for me.

This book has everything; humor, romance, mystery, it even has zombies! Bona fide they bite you, and you turn into one, zombies. I just thought that was fantastic. Overall I really enjoyed this book, and I would highly recommend it. I think the praise on the back by Maureen Johnson really sums it up beautifully.

"If you love vampire books, this is the book for you - if you hate vampire books, this is also the book for you."

This review is also on my blog The Confessions of a Book Nerd :)

[Linda]

This and other reviews can be found on my blog:(un)Conventional Bookviews

I liked quite a few things in this book, but I didn't connect that much with the MC, Mel was acting like a spoiled brat for a lot of it, and she thought she was helping her friends, but really, she was looking out for number one.