Bloodline

Cary, Kate, Bloodline.  New York: Penguin Group, 2005. 

Audience:  Teen 14+

Genre:  Horror

Topics of Focus: Vampires & World War 1

Red Flags: Gore

Imagine a world where unrealistic monsters that you believed were not real were actually walking among you. For John Shaw that was the case. In this book the main character John Shaw is fighting in the trenches in World War One. While in his army camp, he hears his fellow soldiers talking about a beast in the trenches. Little does he know the beast is someone he trusts and would die for, his captain, Quincey Harker. During the war John is injured and sent home to the hospital in his hometown. While in recovery, he has strange dreams and hallucinations that he cannot control. A week passes and Quincey comes to visit him and everything starts to come undone in John’s life. Lily who is John’s sister falls madly in love with Quincey and disappears from home. John then realizes that the situation at hand is life or death.

This book is a very exciting read, especially if you have read Dracula by Bram Stoker. This book reminds me of the sequel in a sense, and while reading you make so many connections between each of the characters. The mood of this book is dark but intriguing. It’s one of the books you can’t put down after reading, and once you’ve finished the book, you want to read more. I feel the way the book is written makes it very unique because it uses diary entries and letters so you get to feel what the characters are feeling. If you like horror novels with a bit of a mystery to them, then this is the book for you.  

Annotation by Sammi Jacobsen