A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris

A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Stephanie (who prefers to be called Svetlana) moves to a new town and attends a new school.  Many of the kids think that she’s a bit of an oddball; Svetlana prefers wearing black, only eats red food, has extrasensory powers, and believes that she’s a vampire.   Is that really so strange?  What Svetlana finds strange is her new neighbor Mrs. Bones.  At first glance, Mrs. Bones seems like a perfectly normal old lady, but Svetlana soon learns differently.

Meanwhile, Svetlana and her classmates meet their new science teacher Ms. Larch.  For some reason, Ms. Larch smells like rotting garbage to Svetlana and no one else.  And as she spends more time with Mrs. Bones, Svetlana realizes that Mrs. Bones smells like cookies baking.  What is going on?  Late one night, Svetlana wakes to the sound of her dog barking and finds Mrs. Bones in her treehouse (which she calls The Oak of Doom).  There, Mrs. Bones tells Svetlana that she is not a vampire, but one “who knows” and is now part of the Circle, a secret group who fights vampires throughout the world.  Their first task, Mrs. Bones explains, is to eliminate evil Ms. Larch!

This is a great book; Svetlana is a snarky girl who has a good head on her shoulders.  The two dorky boys she enlists to help her are funny cowards, while Ms. Larch is a smooth villian!  Recommend this to female readers who want a good book about vampires but aren’t ready for the Twilight  series yet.

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