VOYA gives Fang Girl the thumbs up!

Look! The first trade review (that is, a review by a professional organisation, rather than an individual book blogger) for Fang Girl! When my editor sent me this, I… well, not literally screamed with joy, because I’m far too introverted to randomly expostulate at my laptop, but I did make a strange yelping gasp. This is from VOYA – Voice of Youth Advocates, aka the organisation for librarians looking for children’s and teen’s literature – which is a famously tough venue. Here’s what they had to say:

VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES (VOYA) Keeble, Helen. Fang Girl. HarperTeen, 2012. 352p. $9.99 Trade pb. 978-0-06-208225-1.

Quirky and fun, this debut is a humor-filled twist on the teen vampire-romance craze. Fifteen- year-old “Xanthe” (Jane Green) awakes from her death to discover she has been turned into a vampire. Always on the fringe of fitting in due to a nomadic family that moves every two years, Jane finds comfort in Fang-Girls.net, a fansite. Becoming a vampire is a dream come true. When Jane returns home in her vampire state, her family is overwhelmed by the reappearance of their daughter. Adventure and laugh-out-loud antics ensue as Jane tries to find her vampire sire.

Jane’s authentic teen dialogue is refreshing and reminiscent of Louise Rennison’s Confession of Georgia Nicolson series. Once Jane meets her vampire sire, Lily, she awaits instructions concerning her vampire future. In the meantime, twists and turns erupt as dashing and attractive vampire Ebon and a young hot vampire hunter, Van, enter the story and further confuse Jane about the direction of her new life. On the run from Hakon, an ancient vampire leader, Jane must form allegiances to save her family. Uproarious situations and references to vampire popular culture are fun to catch while reading this story appropriate for high school readers and adults looking for an amusing alternative to the serious vampire genre.

—Adrienne Amborski.

Fang Girl is a fun teen read. Jane Green’s voice is modern and real. Keeble takes every vampire stereotype and rips it apart in a hilarious way. The main character will have readers growing attached to her due to her bravery and quirkiness. This debut will appeal to vampire fans or any teen girl looking for a fast, amusing read. 4Q, 4P.

—Gwen Amborski, Teen Reviewer.

Rather than a star rating, VOYA score books with 1 to 5 for both Quality (how well-written it is) and Popularity (how likely it is to appeal to a wide audience). So I’m hugely thrilled that FANG GIRL scored 4P, 4Q!

(in case you’re wondering, fives are very rare, and automatically put a book in the special “best of year” issue. Fours are good! Very good!)

For the record, I would like to state: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO! *happy dance*

I can’t believe it’s less than two months to release date (hey, did you see my nifty new countdown timer on the front page? You have no idea how many hours I wasted spent fiddling with that). As it’s taken two years to go from signing the contract to the book hitting the shelves (yes, this delay is normal for the publishing industry), I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that soon people will actually be able to buy my book. And read it! And say things about it! Hopefully more nice things…

(I must confess that I am secretly agog for my first animated-gif filled savaging. You aren’t a real author until someone has expressed their undying hatred for your words through the medium of cat macros, after all.)