Y’all, I clearly need to change my reading habits. Seriously, I’ve never read a book by Justine Larbaleister or Sarah Rees Brennan prior to Team Human and now I feel like I am totally missing out. There’s humor, parody, swoons and warmth in Team Human, a collaboration between the two that has me wanting to search out the authors’ back lists and get down to business.
Team Human
Vampires are pretty much a Thing and while perhaps their time is almost past for now, I am pretty sure there will be another cycle in my lifetime where they are the Thing again. Team Human by Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbaleister explores the mania surrounding these creatures of the night in quite a clever way. When a vampire begins classes at Mel Duan’s high school in New Whitby, she finds herself filled with worry and concern for BFF Cathy who has this overwhelming fascination for Francis the vampire. Mel, being an awesome friend does not want Cathy to get hurt and does everything in her power to save Cathy from joining the dark side. Meanwhile her other friend, Anna, is dealing with vampire related trouble at home. Friends, Mel has A LOT on her hands, friend wise.
You guys! This is what I want in a book. I want to read books that weave themes of love and f friendship without sacrificing one for the other, i.e. a person can be both in love AND have friends. And I think the characters of Team Human do a great job of exploring those sorts of dynamics — basically showing people in relationships hanging with those outside of the romance. I love that. I also like that all the characters learn something, as hokey as that sounds. I liked that they all came in with these incorrect preconceived moments, some of which include hilarity, including a first kiss. Don’t ask, just read. Another thing I quite liked was what I perceived as references to In Real Life Things, like before a person makes the choice to become a vampire they can go to a clinic and go on a tour to see what exactly can go wrong and are given all of these pamphlets to try and get them to change their mind.
In all, this is a refreshing, fun and touching satire with a world I had fun checking out. With an irresistible heroine in Mel Duan, Team Human is definitely an amusing read.
Disclosure: Received for review.
Other reviews of Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan:
Book Harbinger – “has substance to boot.”
Bookworm1858 – “ended up taking some twists that I did not anticipate”
The Book Smugglers – “surprised the hell out of me“
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I enjoyed this book a lot, finding it more humorous than the other works I’ve read by the authors individually. I’m fully Team Human and loved having a book on my “side” although of course it’s a bit more than that.
Hah! I agree it’s good having a book on our side, as a fellow member of Team Human and all.
I want to read this book so badly now I can’t even. FEMALE FRIENDSHIP FOR THE WIN.
YES! Healthy friendships foreva!
Sadly, love and friendship don’t seem to go hand-in-hand in many YA novels. Why is this? I mean, you really SHOULDN’T have to sacrifice your friendships in order to have lurve…if you do, it’s not a very healthy romance. And I agree–I want more books like this! TEAM HUMAN was funny and cute and well-written with strong friendships and a cute love story (Mel’s NOT Cathy’s–that bit of insta-love frustrated me as much as it did Mel. But that was the point, of course.).
Right? I think that the test of a good friendship and a good relationship is that you can have both! I would love to read more books with healthy relationships like this.
Bahahahah I totally loved this book. It’s ridiculously funny, I really wish these girls would write something else together. Something about werewolves! Or zombies! YEAH! Awesome review chickie.
Anna @ Literary Exploration
Oh man, I can imagine how fantastic it would be if they wrote the zombie apocalypse together.
I loved this book so much! Sarah Rees Brennan is one of my very favorite authors! You really want her upcoming release Unspoken… witty teen girl reporter + mysterious gothic manor = AWESOME!
This book sounds like it will be so much fun to read! I had my misgivings when I first heard the title, but your review has managed to convince me to try it out.
Team Human FTW! Now you MUST read The Demon’s Lexicon for more of that great love and friendship SRB does so well.
I think this is EXACTLY what I need at the moment. Something funny and swoony! Bumping it up my TBR list to stare at until I stop being too broke to buy books.
I hadn’t read either author before I read Team Human either. Luckily, I had an eARC of Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan from NetGalley. It was amazing too. Like you, I want to hunt down their backlists too.
I forgot to mention that I reviewed Team Human here.
I downloaded my copy last night, just anxiously waiting to finish my current read, but I HAD to read your review because I was anxious to hear what you thought!! I can’t wait to read this one though!!
-Jac @ For Love and Books
I really need to read this! I’ve been hearing nothing but great things!
Also, you should check out Liar by Justine Larnalestier. It’s the biggest mind f*ck book I’ve ever read. It’s AWESOME! 🙂
I’ve seen this book a lot around the blogosphere lately and it seems like a really great story. I love that the authors show you can be in love AND have friends. I feel like that’s something quite a few YA books lack and for that reason alone, I’m definitely going to have to read Team Human!