Imaginary Enemy - Julie Gonzalez

wha?! i was pretty confused for the first half of this book. we had it catalogued as ya, but our protagonist, jane, spends the entire first 109 pages progressing from elementary through to middle school. it's not until page 110 that she actually hits high school. so you can understand my confusion. here i am reading a ya book and the main character is only in grade 2. for a long time. not just a quick flashback to explain everything that came before.

"imaginary enemy" is the story of jane white, who feels like the only neutral colour in a box of saturated primaries. her siblings and her neighbours all revel in their eccentricities while jane decides to toe the line of the status quo in search of popularity and acceptance. two things that seem to elude her. her desire to fit in ends up alienating her from the people who care about er the most.

however, jane isn't as normal as she'd like to think. perhaps the best example of this being her imaginary enemy beelzebub, who she writes to whenever things go wrong in her life. events seem to come to a head though when bubba starts writing back.

The Vampire Diaries - L. J. Smith

when these books showed up on the new york times bestseller lists i nearly peed myself laughing. it's so funny because "the vampire diaries" were written in 1991. that's 17 years ago. i probably read them initially nearly that many years ago. and now, because vampires are hot thanks to "twilight", l.j. smith's books finally hit the bestseller lists. weird. or at least i think it is. really, i'd be interested to know how unusual of an occurrence it is for a book to spend nearly 20 years in limbo before being noticed.

well, all things considered, when "the vampire diaries" came into the library i had to read them. mostly for the nostalgia. i was expecting trash, and i was not let down. yes, these are trashy, trashy vampire romance novels. but just because it's trash doesn't mean it can't be good fun. if you have readers who are into twilight or ellen schreiber's "vampire kisses" series, they'll really sink their teeth into these (pun definitely intended).

so, what are "the vampire diaries" about you may ask. well, wait for a moment and i will tell you. here goes: v. attractive centuries old italian vampire shows starts attending a high school in a small town in virginia. v. attractive high school prom queen falls in love with said vampire. they start dating. vampire's equally attractive but slightly more sinister brother shows up. supernatural love triangle ensues. *cough* twilight *cough*. no, seriously, there's nothing wrong with that. i mean its kind of its own subgenre by now, right?