Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire by Douglas Tanner

Released: October 15th 2013

Publisher: Alaban Press

Buy the Book: Amazon

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

About the Book:

It's been four months since Alec Kerley and his friends had their run-in with Bigfoot in the Ozark Mountains. During a field trip to southeast Kansas, they are confronted by a vampire. And this vampire knows them. He has been stalking them - watching, observing, tracking. He knows Alec's father works for a secret government agency that investigates monsters.

And now the monsters want revenge.

Still trying to deal with the loss of his mother, Alec will have to gather all the courage he can muster, because the monster hunters have become the hunted.

Hold on tight for the scariest Monster Hunters story yet!

My Thoughts:

I could start with a big suspenseful build up before saying how much I like this book, but y'all saw my 4 star rating up there so I'm just going to start by saying how much I loved it!
I don't read a whole lot of books that fall under the horror genre, but I also don't like to limit myself based on what genre a book falls under. So, when Mr. Tanner asked me to review Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire and I read that synopsis I absolutely fell in love with the idea of this book, but also felt that it would take a certain type of person to pull this book off and make it different than any other vampire novel on the market. I'm happy to say that Douglas Tanner definitely is that person!

For me, I would tentatively describe this as a modern day Dracula for middle schoolers, big time Dracula fans, please don't bash me for saying that. I just feel that the book has a strong readability for those pre-teens/young teens that aren't quite ready for the super scary/too adult horror books that are out there, but still love the genre. There's lots of action and gore, but I feel like the author kept in mind the entire time who his target audience is, yet still made it enjoyable for older teens(like myself) and adults as well. 

One thing I really loved about this book was the little bits of faith throughout, if you pay attention. Mr. Tanner was also kind enough to give me his description on how his faith came into play, a bit of insight into the series inspiration and why this book is more Inspirational Horror than just plain horror: 

"Regarding inspirational horror, I actually didn’t set out to write it that way. I’ve loved the old movie monsters since I was a child watching them with my grandfather, and thought it would be fun to write those types of stories for this series. But I’ve also found that it is literally impossible for me to write anything without incorporating some level of faith into the story. I’d say perhaps I’ve created a new genre, but then I remember how much faith was a part of the original Dracula novel."

Before I wrap up this review, I would like to point out that this is the second book in a series. Although I felt I got on okay reading this before the first book, I recommend that you check that book out first if you'd like to read the series, as there were a few times where I felt I was missing something. 
Overall, I found myself really enjoying the novel. In fact, I was surprised at how much I did considering I'm not really the target audience. There was just something about it that kept the pages turning and on the edge of my seat. I recommend for middle schoolers on up! 

*I received this book for review from the author, but this in no way affected my opinion or review*