Why You Need to Read My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf

The problem with a Paul Tobin book is that you want to read every word. That’s not really a problem per se, but you want to get to the end of it so that you can find out how all of this silliness ends. And we mean that in the fondest of ways. My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf takes a premise that elementary ages, middle school students and RPG gamers have kicked around since they were first staked or howled at the moon. The moment you mention the title your mind starts to play out how they would fight, what environment would be friendliest to each monster and how could such a battle realistically take place without attracting massive amounts of attention.

My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf doesn’t waste time establishing how vampires and werewolves come into the fray. Count Drustan is the vampire who has been awakened from his centuries-long slumber. Redd is the werewolf who has been practicing his stalking skills in a warehouse. He’s quite pleased when two youths come into his home to convince him to fight the vampire and treats them equally as naïve salespeople and a bacon-wrapper bi-pedal snack. The introduction of our two monster protagonists happens in the first and second chapter. Each monster has two handlers who have the power to control them via medallions that they wear around their necks.

Some readers will roll their eyes at the supposed familiarities between the medallions that humans earn, which gives them the right to control various monsters. The Pokemon similarities do not last long and aren’t that strong. Resist the urge to compare My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf to various Asian card games or anime. This book is its own beast and the action, with the title fight that’s alluded to on the cover starts to take shape in the fifth chapter. The humans go to the place that has established itself as the venue where the combat happens. It’s a massive fake city with built in safe guards, support staff, and a sense of bureaucratic arrogance that rivals InGen from Jurassic Park. To that end, when they make a movie from this book it would be criminal not to cast Jeff Goldblum in one of the few roles that the adults make up.

This is mglit that makes upper elementary ages want to read. It’s written at a level that they’ll be able to consume, might be a little challenging at times, but the story is so much fun that they’ll push through it. Middle school audiences will think that the content is too simple, but will start reading it because they can’t get the idea of a vampire and werewolf fighting out of their head. The same thing goes for high school readers and older who simply want to engage in a book that’s a testament to reading as escapist, silly fun.

My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf is not all silly. The concept is certainly one that’s south of real and its execution could be campier than it is scary. It’s author Paul Tobin who does a great job of pacing the story and rolling out the scares when it’s needed. The result is a book that’s fun, without being campy, all the while creating a plausible scenario where monsters that we want to believe in fight. It’s combat with restrictions and particularly true when you factor in that the actual fight between the two monsters occupies most of the book.

The two titular monsters meet each other for the first time halfway through My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf. Their fight ebbs and flows with each beast using their respective strengths to gain momentary advantages. What makes the fight interesting is that they each have special powers that makes them unique, especially the vampire. How do you fight something that can change forms, fly, and even turn into smoke? Parallel action sequences are happening while the monsters are fighting that will remind readers of the action in the aforementioned dinosaur movie. They run into objects and destroy things, which causes unintended issues for the humans who just want to watch, and control to the best of their ability, the monsters.

The medallions that the humans have are limited. If they are separated from them then their ability to control the monsters disappears, and can a circular rock really hold back the anger and power of either legendary creature?

Young readers, actually readers of any age that give the book a chance will enjoy it. It has action to set up the finale-which lasts half of the book and does a great job in setting up the secondary characters, as well as the shadowy underworld who oversee everything. It goes back to how we started the review in that there is so much happening in the book you want to read every word. You want to read every word is a rare characteristic to find in mglit. Even if upper elementary or middle-grade students don’t read every word, they will enjoy reading it. The plot is also the water cooler topic that makes sixth graders emotional, more emotional than their usual drama of a first crush or drawing crude body parts in the bathroom stall.

What do you mean a mummy could beat a vampire? They’re just a bunch of pieces of old fabric. Yeah, but they have the ability to put a curse on their opponent. What good does a curse do you if they (the werewolf) has massive strength and claws that can shred fabric like the toilet paper it really is? These are the kinds of spirited conversations that the book will lead to. The topic, monsters, and their fighting in a human-organized battle is so absurd, but one that everyone has thought about that it might even rope in a couple of those reluctant readers who think that they’re too cool for such things.

My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf is by Paul Tobin and is available on Bloomsbury Children’s Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing.

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