What We’re Reading

Sweetblood | Pete Hautman

Rating:

When Luzy Szabo was six-years-old, she found a dying bat in her yeard. Not knowing what it was, other than a small critter, she picked it up and brought it to show her mother, who quickly beat it to death with a broom and threw it in the trash. When her father arrives home, he’s angry, and worried, as Lucy’s hands are covered with scratches. She knows they’re from berry bushes, but doesn’t want to get in trouble for being someplace she wasn’t stupposed to be, so she doesn’t say anything. And off to the hospital for rabies shots they go.

A few months later, Lucy is diagnosed with Diabetes. And no matter what anyone says, she’s convinced the events are related.

Life for Lucy changes after this. The shots, the worry, the constant equation of food + insulin + blood sugar. She grows into an angry teen, with a theory that early diabetics were the people the vampire legends stemmed from. She even writes an essay about it.

The essay doesn’t go ober well with her teacher, nor with her parents, who then search her computer and decide they don’t like some of the internet sites she’s been visiting. With no computer, and feeling friendless, Lucy becomes even more sullen. When a new guy shows up in town, she starts breaking rules to hang out with him. She also stops paying attention to her illness.

Forgetting to eat, overexertion, missed shots, and poor judgement lead to an episode of ketoacidosis, hospitalization, and eventually, change.

A new spin on vampirism, and an intriguing look into the life of a teen with chronic illness, Sweetblood is a quick read that gets the mind churning.

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