Vampire in My Bathtub - Hardcover

Brenda Seabrooke's most recent book, Cemetery Street (Holiday House), was a nominee for the Edgar Award and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Award for best young adult book. She lives on an island in Englewood, Florida. Visit her website at www.childrensbookguild.org/seabrooke.htm.

Seabrooke's (The Haunting of Holroyd Hill) lighthearted vampire novel sends up some monstrous assumptions but ultimately leaves readers with little to chew on. When 13-year-old narrator Jeff and his divorced mother move to bucolic Wicklow, W.Va., they tip the population to 1,011. Excitement builds for Jeff after he discovers a trunk in his closet and unlocks a French vampire, Eugene, from a 117-year slumber. This chubby, perennially starving fellow is a "good vampire": he eschews blood and raw meat, salivates rather than shudders at garlic, sleeps in the bathtub during the day and watches TV all night. Jeff's arch voice coupled with the outsider's view of modern inventions, old movies and the Home Shopping Network provides some humorous moments. However, the third-person narrative that breaks into the novel intermittentlyAand chronicles the goings-on of Eugene's evil enemy vampire (and cousin), Vennard, the New Orleans vampire community and Eugene's love, CarlottaAis too stilted and exaggerated to build much tension (e.g., "The clock strikes the hour but Vennard has long been awake, pacing the floor"). Even the climactic confrontation with Vennard offers little suspense. Ages 8-12. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (Publishers Weekly)