The Holy Terror

This was one of those books that started out funny and full of potential, but somewhere along the way the author strayed off that path. I wanted to read this for myself since the reviews were all over the place, but I'm sorry to say that this just wasn't great. As others have said, at the halfway point this book really starts to go downhill; the characters and story lose their charm, and what once was funny becomes sad and disappointing.Doug Lee is a recently made 15-year-old vampire, who also happens to be fat and a complete dork. He's struggling with the transition and finds himself relying on his best friend and animal blood to get him through the day. He still goes to school and tries to appear normal; complaining of a skin condition and constantly wearing a poncho to combat the harmful rays of the sun. Through mysterious circumstances, Doug is placed with a vampire mentor, an even more mysterious man who lives by himself in a house full of books. It is this mentor, and Doug's feast of deer's blood, that help him become a "better" vampire.At about the halfway point, Doug's story all but disappears, and it's the other characters that take the stage. Doug becomes a minor character is his own story. The whole idea was that Doug was becoming the vampire he wanted to be, and so therefor was more cool, menacing, and primal. But we don't really get to witness any of this. In fact, a whole year has gone by in the space of this novel, and I for one couldn't even tell. With the lack of detail and narrative, I was led to believe that the story takes place over the course of a month, at the most.One of the characters the novel focuses on for a good party of the story is Sejal, a foreign exchange student from India. I frankly would have been happy if she had been the focus throughout. She was interesting, funny, and different - although I wonder if the author included her to spice up an otherwise lackluster story. Every other character was a one-dimensional, walking stereotype, and I didn't care about a single one of them.It's sad really, because the first half of the novel was pure gold. It was funny and relateable and if the author had continued in that vein I'm sure I would have loved it. He had two many trains of thought going, and none of them really made it into the station. Part of the novel was written like a movie script and I actually thought this could add something, but in the end it just fell flat like everything else.Without divulging too much of the ending, I want to say that I understood where the author was going with the story. Two characters remark early on about Neil Gaiman's Sandman and what the actions of that character meant at the end of that series. I'm sorry, Adam Rex, you're not Neil Gaiman. The ending was the worst. Doug's character does a complete 180 again, and we're led to believe he's the sweet kid from the beginning again. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. And you shouldn't buy this book either.