I am pleased to announce that I am every bit as pleased with Stake That by Marianne Mancusi as I was with Boys that Bite. Told from the point of view of Rayne McDonald, the sarcastic, gothic twin of Sunny McDonald, Stake That is the clever story of a vampire-obsessed teen forced to become a vampire slayer–and apparently the first of her kind who will be able to pull off the vinyl pants.
While Rayne is a bit irritated that her bloodmate-to-be, Magnus, accidentally bit her twin sister instead, she is basically happy that Sunny is happy in her inter-species romance. However, Rayne is still longing for her vampire prince–and now that she must stake vampires or suffer from a terrible disease, she may never find him. However, as fate would have it, Rayne is partnered with Magnus’ brother, Jareth, who helps her solve her first vampire slaying case. It doesn’t hurt that Jareth is devastatingly gorgeous and everything Rayne is looking for in the undead–except that he is every bit as jaded as Rayne, which causes them to argue like two old crows. But when Rayne and Jareth discover that Maverick, the bad-to-the-bone vamp with a price on his head, has infected several of the royal blood doners with a terrible virus, they realize that Magnus’ reign as vampire king is at stake. So they must stake Maverick before Magnus is robbed of his power. Unfortunately, Rayne winds up catching the virus instead, doomed to a slow, painful death. Good thing for her that Jareth would do anything to save her.
Stake That was every bit as entertaining as Boys that Bite, and Jareth’s sarcasm and cynicism works well with Rayne’s humorously ironic outlook on life. Again, I laughed my way through this story, especially at the comments following each of Rayne’s blog posts, and found myself grinning like an idiot from time to time. However, there are more serious issues addressed in Stake That, such as Rayne’s issues with insecurity and her problems with her absent father–both valid examples of the types of situations teens deal with every day. For its relevance, for its great characters, and especially for its humor, I recommend Stake That as fun, light-hearted way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
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