READING: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication date: October 18th, 2011
Published by: Spencer Hill Press
Genre: YA Paranormal, Vampires
Rating: 3/5

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

Let me start off by saying that those of you who have already read Half-Blood must have noticed its eery similarity to another very well known book of the genre. Come on, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! Yes, Half-Blood is a great book. Yes, it has a nice romance and well built story. Yes, it has a very hot male character(or should I say hot male characters?) Half-Blood had all that and still couldn't reach Vampire Academy's (by Richelle Mead) potential, seeing as the former was almost identical to the latter.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about plagiarism. Nothing of the kind. I'm just saying that the story of Half-Blood is exactly the same as the story in VA. And I don't use the word "exactly" lightly. The whole mythology, the Moroi, the Dhampir guardians, their frowned upon intimate relations, Dhampirs' infertility, Strigoi and so much more was pictured the exact same way in Half-Blood, under different names of course. Granted, there are a few differences that thankfully are there to help us readers tell the books apart. But overall, it's undoubtedly a repetition of Vampire Academy's story. That's why I feel I don't have to "review" it, tell you my thoughts about the characters and the plot(ha!). If you know me, you know I love VA so you know what my thoughts are on the book(s).

I'm really sorry if I sound totally obnoxious referencing Vampire Academy so much. You know, before I read Half-Blood friends who had already read it warned me about the inevitable VA comparison. But I never expected for those two to be so alike! And I agree with what people say that there's no originality in art, especially in literature. Besides, expecting to read something truly original in the YA paranormal genre is utopic, to say the least. However, I draw the line in reading the same(almost verbatim "copied")story in two different books. And between you and me, Vampire Academy was way better. 

I mean no disrespect to Armentrout, on the contrary. I enjoyed her book and applaud her effort. It's obvious she can write and she can write very well. I just don't understand why she didn't choose to build a new paranormal world of her own, instead of borrowing one from another book. I don't know, I just feel she can do so much better. I enjoyed Half-Blood, no question about it, but in all fairness, probably because it made me want to read Vampire Academy again.