We’re participating in the Feed Your Reader Giveaway Hop. As part of that hop, we’re reviewing and giving away one e-book copy of Suck It Up and Die by Brian Meehl. This is Book #2 of the series; however, I haven’t read Book #1, Suck It Up, and I had no problem following the storyline. If you’re into YA paranormal (vampire) books with an interesting twist, and a lot of irony, then you’ll want to check this one out. Oh hell, check it out anyway. BTW: This giveaway is open internationally.
I’m warning you now – if you haven’t read Suck It Up and plan to do so, then you’ll want to avoid this review because I’m going to give tons of spoilers for Book #1.
Backstory, i.e., Suck It Up: Morning McCobb is probably the wimpiest vampire you’ll ever meet. All he ever wanted was to become a New York City fireman, so you know he never wanted to become a vampire. Fire + vampires = a bunch of ashes, right? Well he became one anyway, thanks to one of the nastiest rogue vamps around. So now Morning drinks a Blood Lite, a soy-based blood drink, and wants to prove vampires are just like all the other groups with special needs by Outing himself to the world. Okaaay – told you this one was different.
When Suck It Up and Die begins, it’s been almost two years since the story in Suck It Up ended and a lot of things have changed for the better for vampires in the U.S. The International Vampire League has developed a school all vamps go through to learn to walk in daylight and to assimilate into mainstream culture. They have to sign pledges that they will not drink from humans and will restrict themselves to synthetic blood blends. It’s an intensive training program and it seems to be working very well.
Morning’s human girlfriend, Portia Dredful, is filming a documentary about the assimilation of Out vampires into society as her senior project while her mother works in public relations for vampire-human relations. Her mom is, however, also working with a new reality TV show, The Shadow, in which vampires compete to win by creatively using their powers for human good. There’s some backlash against the show among League vampires and humans against vampires that Morning fears could erupt at any time into a setback for vampire equal rights.
“Portia and Zoe came through the door. ‘You’re not gonna believe it,’ he [Cody] said. ‘The Bureau of Vampire Affairs yanked The Shadow.’…
Zoe threw up her hands…Then she collapsed in a chair. ‘Do you know what this means?’
‘Yeah,’ Portia said flatly, ‘my mom’s gonna take hormonal rage to uncharted territory.’
‘That,’ Zoe lamented, ‘and I’ll never be on The Shadow. I’ll never be top shadow!’
‘Zoe,’ Portia pointed out, ‘you’re not a vampire.’
Morning’s really tired of being a poster boy for Out vampires. He just wants to finish firefighter training so he can fulfill his dream of becoming NYC’s first vampire firefighter. It turns out that whole ashes-to-ashes part of being a vampire in a fire isn’t that big of a deal for him. He and Portia learned in Suck It Up that one drop of her blood would be all it takes to bring him back to life, a secret they’re keeping for now.
As much as he initially wanted to march in the Vampire Pride Parade, he’s really tired of all the media attention and just wants to live a normal life. A normal life is all he ever wanted. Still, he can’t let his community down so he’s out there, loud and proud, marching at the head of the parade.
“He frowned at the reminder of the first Vampire Pride Parade. It was going to celebrate precisely one year since American vampires had flung off their cloaks of secrecy and outed themselves as members of the International Vampire League. Unfortunately, since Morning had been the first non-threatening vampire to be test-marketed on the mortal world of Lifers, he was expected to be in the parade. Worse, Luther Birnam…insisted that Morning march at the front of the parade.”
When vampires die in this world, their essence becomes a seed that returns to the Mother Forest in Northern California to become one of the trees in that forest. As far as any vampire knows, that’s the end for all vampires. The ancient vampire who turned Morning, Varkos; however, was a Millennial, a vampire who had been alive for more than 1,000 years. His seed returns to the forest; however, he heals and is reborn with a huge thirst for revenge and the power he feels was wrongly usurped from him. This is not some nice, non-threatening vampire. This is an old-style, slaughter them all vampire and he will stop at nothing to get revenge on Morning, Portia, Birnam, and the entire International Vampire League. Dwoops!
Morning and Portia are star-crossed lovers, and I liked them both a lot. Morning may seem like a wimp but he’s a truly nice guy with a heart of gold. Portia is a little spitfire who wants to do everything she can to prove to the world that vamps are people too – no blind spot or anything, right?
Mr. Birnam is like the Wizard of Oz, the little man behind the curtain who runs everything. The International Vampire League is trying way too hard to prove something that isn’t true – vampires aren’t like humans even in this world; however, they did learn valuable lessons from the GLBT community. They realized that hiding in the shadows would never get them equal rights and silence equals death. More power to them! As for our villains (I’ve only mentioned one of two), they’re villains you’ll love to hate.
“The IVL condemns the drinking of human blood, even for medical reasons. It violates the Leaguer commandment of restricting our diet to animal or artificial blood.
The IVL fully supports the canceling of The Shadow and offers a profound apology to Lifers for this despicable incident.
To my fellow Leaguers I say this: should we dip into the human well again – for any reason whatsoever – our dream of freedom will drown in it.’ Luther Birnam President of the IVL”
Brian Meehl has written a laugh-out-loud, wacky novel in Suck It Up and Die that also is quite touching and suspenseful at times. It’s a surprisingly quick read given its length. I enjoyed every minute of it and will be first in line if Book #3 is written. I’ve read comments from people who thought Book #1 was a stand-alone novel and were surprised that Book #2 worked so well – just thought I’d pass that along. This one will appeal to everyone from young teens to adults, because it can be read at several levels. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Can’t wait to read it?
Suck It Up and Die was published on August 14, 2012, so it should be available from your favorite bookseller below. Just click the button to go there to get it.
I’d love to get your comments on Suck It Up and Die, Brian Meehl or his other work, and/or this review.
If you like this review, please “like” it, +1 it, and share it with your friends!
Our Giveaway:
One lucky reader will win an e-book copy of Suck It Up and Die, which is available for the Kindle or the Nook, or through iTunes.
Once you’ve entered out giveaway, click on the link just below the Rafflecopter form to check out all the other great giveaways in this hop!
Giveaway Rules:
1) The deadline for entries is Wednesday night, 8/29/2012, at 11:59pm EDST. No entries after that date/time will be eligible.
2) This giveaway is open to entries internationally, as long as Suck It Up and Die is available as an e-book for your country. Please note: No substitutions will be made. For example: If e-book delivery is not available for the winner’s location, that winner will be disqualified and a new winner will be chosen.
3) You must be at least 13 years old to enter this giveaway.
4) You must use the Rafflecopter form. Even if leaving a comment is part of the giveaway, you must use the form in addition to leaving the comment for the comment to count as an entry.
5) If you already follow PopcornReads on Twitter or Facebook, you must still complete that part of the Rafflecopter form for your follow to count as an entry.
6) That’s it – it’s a very easy giveaway, so have fun and best of luck!
If you’ve never used Rafflecopter before to enter a giveaway, here’s a little 45 sec. video on how to do it:
How to Enter Rafflecopter Giveaways from Rafflecopter on Vimeo.
Click here to find a list of links to all the other e-book-related giveaways in the Feed Your Reader Giveaway Hop!
Click 
Please Donate if you like our reviews: Our reviewers need more caffeine!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Very interesting concept. I don’t think I’ve read any stories where vampires didn’t drink from humans.
← Previous Comments
{ 1 trackback }