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| I have a copy of the book by the way |
The first book in this Archangel Academy series by Michael Griffo is titled Unnatural. The story follows Michael Howard (and many other characters), a teenaged boy from Nebraska, USA who is gay. Not only does Michael face bullying from his high school he also has to deal with his mother's ailing mental health. Once his mother commits suicide his father somewhat come back into his life and enrolls Michael in Archangel Academy: an all-male private Christian (could be Catholic or Anglican as buildings are named after saints) boarding school in the fictional England town of Eden. Archangel Academy (referred mostly as Double A) is where Michael meets boy of his dreams Ronan. Ronan on the other hand is a vampire but he's not your normal average vampire (with so many different incarnations of the vampire in fiction and in folklore, what is the normal vampire anyway?). Michael and Ronan are madly into each other but this is not the reason why Michael was intentionally brought to Eden.
I personally haven't read much fiction that features gay males as main characters, unless you want to count in mangas Tokyo Babylon (up to volume 4 I've read) and Loveless (I think I've read up to volume 4 for this as well). So for me this was something fresh (an a change of pace) while for those who read a lot more books than I do will have a different approach to this.
As for the vampires, I am open to different takes on the lore (except for the ones in Twilight. Reading the books/seeing the films may change my opinion on this). Here the normal vampires do drink blood, have retractable fangs, are sensitive to sunlight and have some form in aniridia. Ronan's type of vampire is mixed with some sort of sea creature which allows him to not be sensitive to sunlight, his eyes to look normal (by human standards) and require less blood as he feeds once a month (with the exception of also having to drink from a special well-spring).
There are some themes to go with this and the one that I can pick out as the overall theme is acceptance. Both characters are seen as outcasts as Michael is gay and his family is not to easy on accepting that and Ronan among the vampires for being a mixed-race vampire. The other is love knows no boundaries.
The cast of characters is fairly large. With that, there are some subplots within the main plot. The narration is third person but it's omniscient so the reader will know what everyone is thinking. I found that the change of scene within a chapter was kind of confusing at times, possibly having to do with my preference for first person narration and third person limited, but it sort of reminded me of a televised screenplay or movie where there one scene juxtaposed with another that's occurring at the same time.
Overall if you're interested in gay, teen romance and vampires without being prejudiced to what vampires should be and shouldn't be, I'd say go for it. A bit of a warning about the content in the later chapters (and dream sequences) this would be best suited for 16 and above (unless you consider yourself a mature reader). I also not a big fan of the rating system (#stars, #/5, etc.) and I'm not a big book reader to give much criticism to every little detail but I'm gonna say this: there were nights when I stayed up late just to finish a chapter or two.
(and now for something random) Songs listened to while reading the book/planning out this post: "Your Decision" by Alice in Chains, "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Beautiful Blue" by Holly McNarland
Not sure who even reads this but if anyone is interested in (or has read) the book the author's website can be found here.
