SECRET VAMPIRE by L.J. Smith
    Category:  Paranormal
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  6/1/96
    Publisher:  Simon Pulse
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating: 5 Stars


    Poppy North is a typical sixteen-year-old--she gets through school by being smarter than her teachers; likes to irritate
    her straight- laced twin brother, Phil; listens to New Age and techno music; has a secret crush on her best friend,
    James; and wakes up on the first morning of summer vacation before her senior year of high-school with nothing more
    paramount on her mind than what she can do with an entire summer spent with James.

    Until the pain in her abdomen, which has steadily been increasing, working its way around to her back, keeping her
    awake at night, and causing her to lose weight, sends her to the doctor. Who then sends her to the hospital for tests.
    Where doctors then inform her that she has pancreatic cancer--the kind that will kill you within three weeks to three
    months.

    Poppy, of course, isn't ready to die. Watching the reaction of her family--twin brother Phil, her mother, and step-
    father Cliff--only brings the truth closer to home. Poppy is going to die, there's nothing anyone can do about it, and it's
    going to be painful.

    Except there is someone who can do something about it. James Rasmussen, her best friend from El Camino High
    School, her secret crush, a boy who now tells her something impossible--he's a lamia, a boy who was born a vampire,
    a member of the Night World, and he can change Poppy into a vampire to avoid certain death.

    Of course Poppy doesn't believe him at first, but then what choice does she have? There's always been something
    different about James, and now she knows exactly what the difference is. So she agrees to become a vampire,
    knowing she'll have to leave her family behind, but knowing it's the only way to avoid certain death.

    What follows is a fast-moving, interesting story about Poppy's immersion into becoming a vampire, the toll it takes on
    her brother, Phil, who finds out what they're doing, and the danger it puts James in. Because there are only two rules
    of the Night World: Never let the humans know it exists, and never fall in love with one of them. James has broken
    both of those rules.

    What a great start to the NIGHT WORLD series! Towards the end of the book we meet some other interesting
    characters, which I'm guessing will play major roles in future books, so I can't wait to get started on the next read.
Night World Bk. 1: Secret Vampire
by L.J. Smith