Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Publisher: Candlewick
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 0763627917
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9-12
Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Monsters--Vampires
Reader’s Annotation: Quincie's family restaurant needs a new chef and menu to go with its fresh vampire theme. But when she finds one she gets more than she bargained for.
Plot Summary
Quincie Morris is devoted to her family’s restaurant. Though she’s still in high school, she takes a lot of the responsibility for running it—she has to, since everyone who used to do the job is dead. Her parents died a few years before, and in the third chapter of the book her old family friend and chef, Vaggio, is brutally murdered in the kitchen. Only Quincie’s young uncle Davidson remains to care for the restaurant and her. Together, they’re planning a massive renovation and rebranding, changing the place from family-style Italian into a fine-dining vampire theme restaurant called Sanguini’s. The problem is that after Vaggio’s murder, no one sane wants the job of head chef. Eventually they find a suitable replacement in Johnson, whom Quincie takes to calling Bradley, a seemingly mild-mannered guy who at first cooks solid but uninspired Italian. Quincie takes on the job of prepping him for the role of the diabolical Vampire Chef while he works on designing the new menu. Meanwhile, Uncle Davidson’s creepy girlfriend Ruby wants the part, and Quincie is on the outs with her best friend/would-be boyfriend Kieren, a half-werewolf. People keep turning up dead, and more and more characters are revealed to be werepeople of various kinds. Quincie is developing a serious drinking problem, and Bradley/Johnson is turning out to be more than she can handle.
Critical Evaluation
Smith’s writing is engaging—funny, occasionally creepy, and sometimes sexy. Quincie has moments of originality and charm, as when she tastes a soup and thinks, “Blessed Mother of Minestrone.” The tone of the book is more campy than scary. After one gruesome murder Quincie chides, “ ‘You ate the police?!’ ” The settings, an affectionately described Austin, Texas and the realistically detailed restaurant, add a unique flavor.
Unfortunately, the characters are not as well fleshed out. The chapters are very short, and the dialog is routinely broken up by action, Quincie’s thoughts, and scene changes. The short bursts that remain are not enough to provide insight into the other characters. Motivations are often obscure or unrealistic. Ruby, for example, is a powerful werecat. Why would she be interested in dorky Uncle Davidson? And Uncle D himself, who’s always been a good guy, suddenly decides to let a vampire take seventeen-year-old Quincie as his bride. Similarly unclear are the rules of this fantasy world. The process by which vampires are created is never fully explained, and there are discrepancies in the time it takes people to turn.
The plot, too, stumbles. The fact that Bradley is a real vampire is obvious from early on. The ending is a headlong rush of revelations, though much important information is frustratingly left out. On two separate occasions Quincie and Bradley nearly have sex—or perhaps actually go through with it. It’s impossible to tell. Finally, there are several important plotlines left unresolved at the end.
Curriculum Ties: N/A
Booktalking Ideas: Read Sanguini's grand reopening menu.
Challenge Issues: Language, underage drinking, sexual content
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll put in positive reviews from Booklist and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, a mixed one from Kliatt, and a negative one from Children's Literature.
About the Author
New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith writes fiction for everyone, but she has a particular affection for young readers, from kids to twenty-somethings. Cynthia's fiction is noted for its diversity, humor, lyricism, imaginativeness, compelling action, and mid-to-southwestern settings.
Cynthia was named one of three honored authors by “A Gathering of Readers,” an International Indigenous Youth Reading Celebration during the week of April 18-22, 2005.
Throughout summer/fall 2005, she was a visiting faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She became a permanent faculty member in October 2005. Due to her heavy publishing schedule, Cynthia is currently on an extended leave from the faculty.
Her website at www.cynthialeitichsmith.com, offers articles, interviews, reading recommendations, publishing news, and annotated links. It was named one of the top 10 writer sites on the Internet by Writer's Digest, and it was recognized among "Great Sites for Kids" by the American Library Association in the "Authors/Illustrators" category.
Cynthia has worked as a popcorn popper and cashier in a movie theater, a waitress (in a Mexican chain restaurant, and at a country club restaurant and pool), an attendant at a gas station, a receptionist at a law firm, a telephone operator at a bank, a law clerk (for a legal aid, for a small firm, for a government agency, and for a federal appeals judge), and an English tutor for students of migrant farm families. She has also worked as a reporter (for small-town and big city newspapers) and in public relations (for a non-profit agency, for a greeting card company, and for an oil company). In addition, Cynthia has taught legal writing and writing for children and young adults.
Cynthia was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Her previous states of residence are: Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, and Oklahoma. She is a tribal member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
Today, she lives in Austin, Texas, with her four cats and her husband, award-winning children's book author Greg Leitich Smith.
http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/CLS/about_cyn.html
Why is this title included?
Paranormal romance is a popular genre. Tantalize will appeal to fans of Twilight and/or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.