A few weeks ago, I reviewed Holly Black’s clever twist on
the typical vampire idealism with her fantastic fantasy ‘The Coldest Girl inCold Town’. This week, I wanted to review to review ‘Team Human’ by Sarah Rees
Brennan and Justine Larbalestier, another YA vampire variation, before the
little voice in the back of my head chimed in. “Too similar Frankie, too, too similar.”
No, I answered the voice, I want my readers to keep Holly Black in mind when
they read this, I want them to share my experience of echoes and the spotting
of key differences and similarities, creating the same fascinating comparing
experience that happened to me. The voice in the back of my head shrugged and
sulked, but it said okay, so here goes.
‘Team Human’ is another book I really stumbled into in an odd sort of way, and was rather perplexed by. The first point of it that really got me twisting my hair round my fingers in confusion was that vampires in this book are not all that great (at least to the narrator Mel). In every fantasy I have read, the fantasy characters, although always an ‘other’ to the human, and usually dangerous, are glamorous, fixated upon, and above all, longed for (even if it’s a creepy, maybe-yes-maybe-no way). In ‘Team Human’, vampires appear far more like bored individuals, an aging population with nothing particularly vicious about them, barring a few exceptions. The removal of this danger from the vampires is partly just the perspective of the narrative, but, more than that, it really is a tribute to the two authors’ writing in that they make a relatively heavy thematic point in a pretty comedic fashion. The idea of ‘who is the real monster’ is not a new notion (remember Cold Town, remember the last letter which ponders whether the monster is inside all humans?) but in Team Human, instead of the monster in humans, we really see the human in the vampires.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a book simply built out of parody and knitted together with happy co-operation and smiles – it, like most vampire novels, holds unto its gritty violence and a good amount of threat, but I really enjoyed the other side of this novel more. Whilst Holly Black’s earth of vampires trembled and shuddered with shadows bursting from corners, and the ever-creeping feeling of a time bomb inside the narrator ticked on, the world of ‘Team Human’ is described to be a kind of “Las Vegas”, and a lot less exciting than people seem to believe. More than anything, in this world, it is not the crisis of vampires they deal with, but the after effects, not the immediate appearance, but the prejudice and relations between humans and vampires that follows. Whilst I do prefer the thrilling terror of the Cold Town environment, I was fascinated by the rebuilt society that’s established in Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbalestier’s novel.
However, although I could nit-pick for quite a while on this book for its characters, I will channel my hesitant feelings into one form and that form is the character of Cathy. At first I mistook my misgivings for personal distaste (which I will admit, I am occasionally prone to), but by a third of the way through I began to believe Cathy as a character less and less. She became vaguer and vaguer, until a sudden character break of shouting, which seemed to fade all too fast. But I am torn even now for a final decision on my irritation with this, in regards to whether Cathy is simply written like this, or whether this static nature is a deliberate point of Mel’s perspective. I do hope for the latter, and it would make some form of sense, but fear the former may simply be the explanations (Occam’s razor and all that).
Overall, I did really enjoy ‘Team Human’, demonstrated, more than anything, in the fact that I didn’t put it down (I read it in roughly two and a half hours). It probably isn’t one of the more technically ‘worthy’ novels I tend to review, but it’s exploration of a human side was something that I really haven’t come across in most kinds of fantasy, and something that keeps me a little conflicted even now.
‘Team Human’ is another book I really stumbled into in an odd sort of way, and was rather perplexed by. The first point of it that really got me twisting my hair round my fingers in confusion was that vampires in this book are not all that great (at least to the narrator Mel). In every fantasy I have read, the fantasy characters, although always an ‘other’ to the human, and usually dangerous, are glamorous, fixated upon, and above all, longed for (even if it’s a creepy, maybe-yes-maybe-no way). In ‘Team Human’, vampires appear far more like bored individuals, an aging population with nothing particularly vicious about them, barring a few exceptions. The removal of this danger from the vampires is partly just the perspective of the narrative, but, more than that, it really is a tribute to the two authors’ writing in that they make a relatively heavy thematic point in a pretty comedic fashion. The idea of ‘who is the real monster’ is not a new notion (remember Cold Town, remember the last letter which ponders whether the monster is inside all humans?) but in Team Human, instead of the monster in humans, we really see the human in the vampires.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a book simply built out of parody and knitted together with happy co-operation and smiles – it, like most vampire novels, holds unto its gritty violence and a good amount of threat, but I really enjoyed the other side of this novel more. Whilst Holly Black’s earth of vampires trembled and shuddered with shadows bursting from corners, and the ever-creeping feeling of a time bomb inside the narrator ticked on, the world of ‘Team Human’ is described to be a kind of “Las Vegas”, and a lot less exciting than people seem to believe. More than anything, in this world, it is not the crisis of vampires they deal with, but the after effects, not the immediate appearance, but the prejudice and relations between humans and vampires that follows. Whilst I do prefer the thrilling terror of the Cold Town environment, I was fascinated by the rebuilt society that’s established in Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbalestier’s novel.
However, although I could nit-pick for quite a while on this book for its characters, I will channel my hesitant feelings into one form and that form is the character of Cathy. At first I mistook my misgivings for personal distaste (which I will admit, I am occasionally prone to), but by a third of the way through I began to believe Cathy as a character less and less. She became vaguer and vaguer, until a sudden character break of shouting, which seemed to fade all too fast. But I am torn even now for a final decision on my irritation with this, in regards to whether Cathy is simply written like this, or whether this static nature is a deliberate point of Mel’s perspective. I do hope for the latter, and it would make some form of sense, but fear the former may simply be the explanations (Occam’s razor and all that).
Overall, I did really enjoy ‘Team Human’, demonstrated, more than anything, in the fact that I didn’t put it down (I read it in roughly two and a half hours). It probably isn’t one of the more technically ‘worthy’ novels I tend to review, but it’s exploration of a human side was something that I really haven’t come across in most kinds of fantasy, and something that keeps me a little conflicted even now.
Note to all: Hey all! I’m so very sorry for the lack of
review last week, I have been having a horrible time with work and illness,
and, unfortunately, I just couldn’t get around to the laptop or the reading. I
shall continue next week as normal!
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