Family Bites (Paperback)

A wickedly comic take on werewolves and vampires, full of characters who you'd love to meet - and others who you'd run a mile to avoid.

Every new author on the comic fantasy scene gets hailed as "the new Terry Pratchett", and usually turns out not to be fit to wipe Pratchett's boots. For the first time an author has appeared who truly deserves that title. The style is very different to Pratchett, and the humour is approached from a very different angle, but the sheer quality is not far short of Pratchett and is head and shoulders above anyone else in the field.

If you like Pratchett, buy "Family Bites" - you'll love it. Just keep your eyes away from the cover.

The best thing about it is the subversion of werewolf/vampire cliches; most obvious when Sophia and Daniel are looking each other up in mythology books. She manages to create a nervy, haemophobic vampire without his being a wimp, and Ben and Sophia, werewolves who act like large friendly dogs in both forms, are terrifically drawn.

As others have said, it's obvious to compare this with Pratchett. It's *really* obvious to compare it to Carpe Jugulum and the Fifth Elephant. But I actually think the Rivers family are a *more* interesting werewolf family than the von Uberwalds. (And I expect to be struck by lightning by the God of Comic Fantasy for saying so).

My only niggle is with Daniel's brother John. We're evidentally meant to see him as a lovable rogue, similar to Richard Rivers, but his behavior is more that of a total git. He redeems himself towards the end, but I'd still like to have seen more consequences for his actions.

Others have said the book really deserves 10 stars. Well, due to the above and the needlessly confusing fractions in the later chapter numbers, I'm afraid I have to dock one, bringing it down to nine 8-).

I undestand there's going to be a sequel. I lool forward to it.

They get new neighbours, in the shape of the Alfonz family. Who happen to be vampires. Very sociable vampires, who have adapted to sunshine, garlic, and can even muster a reflection in a mirror, at a push.

Then one day, the Rivers' maid Katie wakes up with a mark on her neck and a sudden aversion to sunlight...

I bought this book on the recommendation of several friends and #afpers. I'm glad they recommended it, as I think I'd not have got past the cover otherwise. It's oft been said that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and nowhere is it more true than in the case of Family Bites. It looks like it was drawn for a school art project. It's *dreadful*

The book, however, is a gem. It fairly crackles along with a lovely line in wit and dialogue - the characters are very well written. For a first novel, it's a beaut. The book is funny, often laugh-out-loud funny, with a Pratchettesque use of the footnote*. These are characters you'll grow to love, despite their nature. For a novel involving werewolves and vampires, it's not scary, treating them as ordinary people rather than monsters.

I find little time to really get into longer novels these days, what with one thing and another. I haven't begrudged Family Bites a single minute of my time spent reading it. I hope the author is hard at work on a sequel. I shall be pestering the local bookshops to stock it. Do yourself a favour. Go and buy a copy.**

* used to great comic effect
**now. Yes you. :-)