The Last Vampire

Gr 9 Up–Literary gothic classics meet modern teen angst in this vampire fantasy. Lorena Navarro and best friend, Salma Santos, have been admitted to Huntington Academy’s first graduating senior class. Within the first week of classes, Lorena discovers a secret room in the historic Victorian manor and unknowingly awakens William Pride, a vampire from the 18th century. Vampires used to walk among humans freely, but they have been erased from history during the 250 years that William has been asleep. Lorena is manipulated into helping William acclimate to this new time, and the two find themselves attracted to each other. Lorena loves Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Garber repeatedly invokes references to the classic romance, along with other familiar literary tomes. However, Lorena and William’s relationship is a disrupted version of Liz and Darcy, as William constantly threatens to kill Lorena for discovering his existence. Garber also unfortunately tries to tie too many storylines together, which wastes opportunities to develop more sophisticated relationships among the other characters and Lorena. For example, Lorena’s support of Salma after the death of Salma’s mom loses its potency when Garber focuses on the manufactured romance between the two main characters. Lorna’s maternal family is Argentinian, and other characters range in skin tone.