Youngblood

Written by Sasha Laurens

Narrated by Stacy Gonzalez and Katie Koster

High school sucks. Especially for the undead.

“This is the lesbian vampire boarding school story I've always needed, but it's smarter, nastier, and more fun than I ever could have dreamed." —Kylie Schachte, author of You're Next


Kat Finn and her mother can barely make ends meet living among humans. Like all vampires, they must drink Hema, an expensive synthetic blood substitute, to survive, as nearly all of humanity has been infected by a virus that’s fatal to vampires. Kat isn’t looking forward to an immortal life of barely scraping by, but when she learns she’s been accepted to the Harcote School, a prestigious prep school that’s secretly vampires-only, she knows her fortune is about to change.
 
Taylor Sanger has grown up in the wealthy vampire world, but she’s tired of its backward, conservative values—especially when it comes to sexuality, since she’s an out-and-proud lesbian. She only has to suffer through a two more years of Harcote before she’s free. But when she discovers her new roommate is Kat Finn, she’s horrified. Because she and Kat used to be best friends, a long time ago, and it didn’t end well.
 
When Taylor stumbles upon the dead body of a vampire, and Kat makes a shocking discovery in the school’s archives, the two realize that there are deep secrets at Harcote—secrets that link them to the most powerful figures in Vampirdom and to the synthetic blood they all rely on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9780593592946

Sasha Laurens

Sasha Laurens is the author of the adult romance When I Picture You and the young adult novels A Wicked Magic and Youngblood. She spends her time doing research on authoritarianism, training for powerlifting competitions, and hanging out with her mini dachshund, Kiki. 

Reviews for Youngblood

[Alexa O. · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

?PLOT DETAILS?
When I found out that this was related to vampires, I really got excited... it had been a long time since I had read a book about those blood-sucking beings that I am a big fan of, to be honest.
Here we see Kat, who lives in the human world as her mother insists on keeping them away from the world of vampires called the Vampyrdum, but everything changes when she suddenly applies to enter a super prestigious school for vampires, where she is ultimately accepted by a mysterious benefactor who paid for all her studies, giving her a chance for a better future. It is here that she reunites with her ex-best friend, whom she hadn't seen in years after she was betrayed, and starts to connect with more vampires, slowly realizing that not everything is perfect.
One thing I liked about this world is that it is literally in the midst of a pandemic, a deadly virus that infects humans and their blood (which is what vampires feed on), causing vampires to contract this disease and die instantly. This leads them to create a kind of substitute blood called Hema, which saved the vampire society from total disappearance, and not only that, it also allowed vampires to reproduce, meaning baby vampires began to be born and they develop until at some point their development is cut off. They are classified as Young Blood, which literally represents the future that will save vampire society.
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to Hema because it is very expensive, and this causes many to die of hunger and in their desperation consume human blood, risking infection.
Another surprise for me was that it was an LGBTQ+ book; in this case, Taylor, Kat's ex-best friend, is a lesbian who also feels betrayed by Kat because she has the version that she left her without explanation and ran away in the middle of the night from her house.
I liked that the story was told from two points of view, Kat's and Taylor's, so you can see how they are handling situations in Harcote school.
On one hand, Kat wants to fit in with the school elite, associating with the most handsome guy in the generation and hanging out with the most popular girls, and on the other hand, Taylor is trying to deal with her feelings for Kat and being the guinea pig for girls who want to experiment with her, while also joining a kind of union that seeks to eradicate old customs and laws to start interacting with humans.
I feel like it’s a standalone book since, despite covering conspiracy theories, piecing together the puzzle of the past, and youthful relationships, it doesn't feel too overwhelming. I think Taylor was my favorite character because Kat honestly frustrated me a lot... obviously the tension between them was palpable... and when Taylor finally confesses her love to Kat, and Kat realizes she likes girls, it was very sweet... I honestly hated that it took away my moment of explicit tension... but well, just as there are explicit spicy moments between heterosexual and gay couples, I’m sure I'll find one that’s lesbian someday.
In summary, I liked the story, it entertained me a lot and it’s definitely something that could happen to humanity, it’s not too far from reality, especially after we've lived through a pandemic.

I give it 3.5⭐ (Translated from Spanish)

[ValSoto · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I arrived with a lot of excitement to read this book and it disappointed me a bit, hahaha.

1. Starting with the whole "queer vampires" thing. I don't know about you, but by definition, a vampire is almost always QUEER!! But well, I understand that could be the hook to attract readers to the story (I completely get it because the premise of "lesbian vampires" worked for me).

2. There's a really strange part where they try to "minimize" the colonization of India; I swear the character said something like "yeah, my dad was part of the Brits who went to India... my mom doesn't talk much about it, it wasn't anything important." WHY???!!!! WHY INCLUDE THIS TYPE OF THINGS? IDK WAS WEIRD.

3. The plot was the most predictable thing ever; there were interesting moments, but it felt a bit lackluster in creating tension between chapters to keep my interest.

4. The main characters seemed super meh to me, especially Kat. She is the definition of "she's not like the other girls" because she literally was, hahaha. She was a vampire but always carried this banner of being morally superior to others because she cared about things that others overlooked, you know? And I mean, it's fine; I know these topics need to be talked about and discussed, but when you base your character's entire personality on that, I don't feel like it’s an honest argument anymore. Sometimes it felt like she just highlighted certain things, like the lack of diversity in the school or the segregation of students for racial reasons, not because she genuinely cared, but because she felt superior to others.

On the other hand, Taylor was the only openly lesbian vampire in the school... she has a toxic relationship with another character who treats her really badly. I think I liked her more than the other character, but the dynamic of their relationship was tedious; I feel like they wanted to make it a slow burn, but it turned out to be somewhat boring. I won't deny that when they kissed for the first time, I was happy, hahaha, but it was a "FINALLY" and then they stepped back like a thousand steps.

5. The plot was interesting: a human disease that is deadly for vampires, which forces them to create a substitute for human blood to survive. I swear it was really interesting to know what would happen, but while reading everything became super predictable: there were no interesting plots or anything that made me say NO WAY!!

There are probably more negative things than positive, hahaha. I didn't like that the non-American characters were super stereotyped, like the Asian villain or the Black student, but what struck me the most was that at one point, the protagonist starts questioning her sexuality and asks one of her friends how he knew he was queer, and he responds, "that's the problem with heterosexuals, they think they have to discover it when we were born this way," and I can understand why he says it like that, but as a bisexual woman, I also went through those doubts, that uncertainty, that not knowing what you like or don’t. I feel like, being a book that prides itself on being inclusive, this could have been addressed in a better way, understanding that the processes are not the same for everyone.

Even so, I feel there are parts of the story that redeem it.

2 fangs. (Translated from Spanish)

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

teen fiction - lesbian romance at a vampire boarding school

a fun read with Maximum Vampire Drama