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BOOK
ILLUMINATIONS
From Debbie Wiley Book Reviews
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Little Vampire Women
by Louisa May Alcott
and Lynn Messina
Meg,
Jo, Beth, and Amy March are poor but reside happily with their parents.
Their father is away at war and their mother, whom they call Marmee, is
determined to raise them to be respectable ladies- vampire ladies, that
is! The Marches believe in helping the poor and they never dine on
humans. That doesn’t stop the vampire slayers from targeting them,
however. Will the March sisters find happiness… eternally?
LITTLE WOMEN was one of my favorite books growing up so I couldn’t
resist seeing how Lynn Messina would put a vampire spin on the
storyline. And oh, what a fun twist the vampires add! Lynn Messina
keeps the original flavor (pun intended) of the tale while inserting
the vampires in so cleverly that the story flows smoothly along. One
can almost believe the footnotes that hint at editing of other classics.
The footnotes provided a nice context to the story. I actually found
myself wishing there had been more- and I’m normally not a fan of
footnotes in fiction as they usually tend to bog a story down. Instead,
these footnotes lent credence to the idea that vampires were among the
general population and a part of the literature of the time.
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are all portrayed quite convincingly as
vampires. By keeping them on a non-human diet, the inclusion of the
vampire theme provides a hilarious note in an otherwise uplifting tale.
The feminist tone of the original is kept in LITTLE VAMPIRE WOMEN,
maybe even a bit more so for modern day readers with Jo joining
Gentlemen Jackson’s Preparatory Salon for the Training of Vampire
Defenders. The two styles mix quite well as a parody and gave this
reader a chance to relive the past joys of an old favorite in an
entirely new light. Enjoyable!
Publisher: HarperTeen (May 2010)
Author website
Reviewed
by Debbie, Debbie Wiley Book Reviews
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