The Vampire Stalker by Alison Van Diepen

"Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction."

Amy is in love with Alexander Banks, a brooding handsome vampire hunter. There's just one problem: He doesn't exist. Alexander is the hero of a series of popular novels, and Amy has breathlessly followed all his fictional adventures.
Then, late one night, fiction becomes reality.
Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander Banks. In fact, he is Alexander, come to life from the pages of her book. And he's in hot pursuit of Vigo, the ruthless vampire who has croassed over into Amy's city. As Amy struggles to unravel the mystery behind Alexander
srrival, she must help him track down Vigo before too msny lives are at risk. But attraction, danger, and dark secrets collide, leaving Amy to wonder if the greatest thing at stake ...is her heart.

Firstly I would like to thank my friend Mandee at Scholastic for providing me with the future catalog of novels, without it I would have never been able to ask her for this book to review. Within a very quick and short amount of time for my original inquiry, The Vampire Stalker arrived along with 11 other ARC's.

I was originally drawn to this novel because of the vampire fiction. It wasn't until I actually received the book did I find that the author is also a teacher. So not only can I relate to the teacher aspect, but also the language arts as well.

I was captivated immediately from the beginning. It encouraged the reader to go on further than chapter one. This story had the interesting concept of a book- in a book. Amy, the lead female character, reads a series of books that essentially comes to life. She goes from being engrossed into the story she reads to actually being a part of the story! A past era of Chicago is ruled by vampires in the story Amy reads. When that story comes to life she fights for her own survival with the aid of her handsome and charming hero from her novel, Alexander.

I was a bit...meh...shocked...um...what's the word? Well...anyways Mrs. P's character reminded me SO much of Giles (No need to include who he is since everyone in the vampire fiction knows.) but maybe a more mild version? There was one scene that I found to be one of the most intense of the novel and that was during the Club Teen Scene- scene. This was the point of the story I felt that caused that much needed climax to not only keep the reader's attention but also keep them on the edge of their seat in anticipation.

During Chapter 19 the introduction was so thoroughly predictable but that I began to get frustrated with the book. However just as my anger began to bubble it quickly subsided when the author remedied the situations she was writing about. This my friends is what a true book should be. A book that causes anticipation. A book that causes eagerness. A book that causes anger, hostility and frustration. A book that causes deep emotions, because really; who wants to read a book that provokes no emotions?

Favorite Quotes:
"How sad that I feel more of a connection to a fictional character than to a guy in real life." - Amy

"Now that I know what it is to love, I won't feel my life has been wasted." - Alexander

"There is violence in a vampire's blood...I believe that we are capable of evolution, but it will take time. It would be a mistake to forget our nature." - I forget who this was. I think it was Hannah who said this ??