Book Review: Blue Parker's Bite Me

I had the pleasure of finishing a book I picked up some time ago, Bite Me by Parker Blue.  This YA tale had a unique twist on vampires and slayers.  Bite Me is the first book in Blue’s Demon Underground series.



Valentine Shapiro (Val) is an 18 year old loner, human girl and 1/8th of a succubus demon.  A succubus demon is a female lust demon that thrives on her victim’s desire.  Val has spent her whole life suppressing her demon side who she calls “Lola”.  She learned early on how deadly Lola could be, nearly sucking the life out of the first boy she kissed. Val had to find a release for Lola or else.  And so she found the one thing that sated her demon need: vampire slaying.

The notion of this book was kind of cool, I have to say.  When the book starts out, we learn about Val’s family and how crappy they treat her. Man, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the chick.  Val’s mom is a pitiful excuse for a mother. Her step dad is pretty worthless too.  And her sister, Jennifer, in my opinion, is a pain in the ass.  Thanks to her meddlesome sister, Val gets kicked out of her house at 18. WOW, that was intense.

Anyway, Val went on to bigger and better; getting herself a new place to stay, a dog, some friends (finally)…oh and a job too. Apparently she’s built up some kind of a reputation for slaying vampires.  The SCU (a police paranormal unit) sees the need to hire someone with her skill set, especially since San Antonio is running ramped with vampires.  Her boss partners her with a yummy copy named Dan.  Things are finally looking up for Val at least it seems so until she brought back down to reality.  Vampires are on the loose and are killing innocent people.

As Dan and Val investigate the increased vamp activity, they meet a new wave of vampires – all a part of the nonviolent movement. A small set of vampires are desperately trying to integrate themselves within the human population. But let’s face it…Vampires are blood suckers, plain and simple. Right? Maybe…maybe not. Their movement is about using blood banks, recruiting high school volunteers and of course mind-control. Val’s annoying sister, Jennifer, gets wrangled in the whole mess, along with her step dad, Rick. Val’s doing her best to be the supporting daughter/sister, despite her family treating her poorly.

I really liked the notion of Val’s demon side. I also enjoyed how Blue used “Lola” (Val’s demon side) to test the boundaries of her relationship/crush with Dan. Despite all the talk about lust, the book is total age appropriate. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

On my KilloMeter scale, I give Parker Blue’s Bite Me a 3.5.

Until next time….Demon Underground, anyone?

Mina B.