High School Bites: The Lucy Chronicles
by Liza Conrad (Erica Orloff)

Book Description

Lucy Hellenberg is not your typical Pacific Cedar High student. Because in between hanging out with her friends, hating her hair and her math teacher, and trying to decide whether she should dump her on-again off-again boyfriend, she has to deal with a father who refuses to go outside and a house that bears way too much resemblance to the set of The Munsters.

And that's not all. Lucy has just discovered that she's a descendent of the lovely Lucy in Bram Stoker's Dracula-and that vampires really do exist (right here at Pacific Cedar High!). Now, she has to accessorize her homecoming dress with a necklace of garlic and learn how to drive while driving away vampires-without becoming their next victim.

Reviews:

5 stars - Courtesy of Teens Read Too, April 17, 2006
Reviewer: TeensReadToo.com "Jennifer Wardrip" (Central Illinois)

Lucy Hellenberg lives a somewhat a-typical high school life. Her sixteenth birthday is approaching, but she's not too concerned with it. What bothers her is her father's inability to leave their house, a place that bears a strong resemblance to the one the Munsters of television fame lived in. She worries about whether or not Vic, her sometime-boyfriend, will ask her to the Homecoming Dance. She wonders if she'll ever survive algebra with a teacher like Mrs. Ruthen, otherwise known around Pacific Cedar High as Mrs. Ruthless.

To top it all off, her English teacher, Mr. Dobbs, has stared a unit on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Which might have been only mildly interesting (hey, it sure beat Beowulf or Shakespeare!) except for the very, very, very weird coincidences between Dracula and Lucy's own life. Like the fact that two of the main characters of the book are Lucy and Mina, and that Lucy's best friend just so happens to be named Mina. Like the fact that Henry Irving, an actor managed my Stoker back in the late 1800's, shares the same last name as Lucy's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Vic. Like that fact that, on her sixteenth birthday, Lucy's father presents her a journal passed down through her mother's family that lets her in on the little secret that Lucy is now destined to fight Dracula, the most powerful vampire of all.

Of course Lucy assumes her dad has went off the deep end, until she starts reading the journal and reads about her lineage. Suddenly, she can see vampires--real, live, blood-sucking vampires--everywhere she goes. And she knows it's up to her--along with the help of Mina, Mr. Dobbs, her father, her other best friend Mark, a cat named Professor V., a godfather who makes garlic perfume, and a boy named Christopher with a pet wolf named Kayla--to stop Dracula before he kills them all.

HIGH SCHOOL BITES is a great book! Full of action-adventure, interesting vampire trivia, and main characters that will have you rooting for them, I definitely hope there's another book in The Lucy Chronicles!

5 Stars - Charming paranormal chick lit satire for young teens, January 23, 2006
Reviewer: Harriet Klausner

It started in high school student in English class when the teacher discussed Transylvania, Drac, etc. and now not long afterward Pacific Heights High School sophomore Lucy Hallenberg wears a cross, uses garlic perfume and avoids Seattle malls. On her sixteenth birthday, Lucy learns that all her female ancestors dating back to Bram Stoker are named after Lucy Barrows who rejected Dracula's spell; that is actor Henry Irving allegedly playing the role. Now real vamps want to destroy the "Lucys" by wrecking the life of the current one though she needs little help having devastated the dance.

Lucy must deal with the local vampire population like her mom, grandmom, great-grandma and all the other Lucys before her, but first she needs to pass the Ruthless math class and learn to drive in case she needs a fast getaway. Her dad is no help as he is a hermit (just ask the principal) while her two best friends Mark and Mina agree she is Marilyn living with the Munsters so why worry about vampires. Still she knows what she must do, but it is difficult to remember to pack holy water and an algebra book when your boyfriend's surname is Irving.

This is a charming paranormal chick lit satire of Buffy starring a wonderful protagonist struggling to be sixteen, make it through high school, and save the local world at the same time. Lucy is delightful as the latest superheroine in her line while the support cast also descendents from the Stoker age augment the fun. Though some escapades occur from seemingly out of nowhere causing disruption, younger teens will appreciate the amusing action-packed THE LUCY CHRONICLES: HIGH SCHOOL BITES.

Harriet Klausner

4 stars - Homework, Homecoming...and Garlic Perfume , February 4, 2006
Reviewer: Kimberly R. Pauley "www.yabookscentral.com" (Louisville, KY USA)

Lucy Hellenberg soon realizes there really is no such thing as coincidence. There's a good reason she's named Lucy (as was her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother and so on), and that her best friend's name is Mina, and that her father is practically a hermit. Not to mention, her sometime boyfriend Vic's last name being Irving...

On her sixteenth birthday, Lucy finds out that she comes from a long line of strong women named Lucy - starting with the one that inspired the character of Lucy in Bram Stoker's Dracula. But the real Lucy Barrows didn't succumb to Dracula's (Henry Irving's his real name and he was an actor) spell like the one in the book. She ran away and the famed vampire has been chasing her and her descendants ever after.

Armed with her new knowledge, a diary left behind by her ancestors, and some garlic-enhanced perfume, Lucy sets out to do battle with the vampires that want to mess up her life. She'd like to get rid of them once and for all. I mean, for heaven's sake, isn't high school bad enough as it is? Now she's got to worry about carrying holy water around and she's already prone to forgetting her Algebra book.

Liza Conrad's story is a fast read with lots of action and historical tidbits thrown in for good measure. Some things don't make a lot of sense - like Lucy's sudden super powers (where'd she get those?) and Mr. Dobbs (their English teacher and a descendant of Bram Stoker - another coincidence) being able to find them easily whenever trouble breaks out, no matter where they are. But readers will easily overlook those kinds of details in favor of the fun and thrills contained within. Hey, we've even got a Professor Van Helsing appearing - as a cat!

Recommended for readers aged 12 and up, especially girls who like strong role models to look up to and humor to get them through it. And stay tuned, this is a series, so more of Lucy's exciting adventures will be coming.

--Kimberly Pauley, the YA Books Goddess, yabookscentral.com