Award-winning author A. M. Jenkins was not one I’d heard of prior to receiving this book for review, although it seems to be her third book. This novel will be released on May 20, 2008 in the U. S., and she received the PEN/Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship to write it. She apparently lives in Texas, with three children, two cats, and two dogs. Unusually among writers nowadays, she lacks a website, so I can’t tell you much else about her.

Cole is a hemovore — a human who drinks blood. (Don’t call him a ‘vampire’.) He’s been a heme for over a hundred years, now, and he has so many aspects of the life down pat. Of course, being a heme (regular humans are called ‘omnis’, omnivores) is a rather solitary existence; even more so because Cole has a Secret. However, he visits the hemovore safe house in New York City, and discovers an omni who has been turned recently and who hasn’t been trained very well. Cole sighs and hems and haws and eventually agrees to train Gordo, the new heme. To do this, they must leave town, and (basically) go on a road trip.

This book was a quick read; I’d finished it within three hours. Jenkins’s writing mechanics were fine, although she tended to overuse the same few descriptors (marbles for eyes, for example). I have to admit, I spent a good deal of time while reading the book having no idea what it was about. Of course, the back-cover copy was not yet finalized, and perhaps the final copy will include a little more of the plot, to give some readers a clue that this isn’t just On the Road with vampires — excuse me, hemovores.

I actually liked Cole quite a bit, although I wanted to yell at him every time he refused to open up to Gordo. Since he was supposed to be his mentor, wouldn’t one think that Cole would be willing to share some of his experiences with the new heme? The sparseness of his background imbued him with more of a sense of mystery than he probably deserved, but he was overall an interesting narrator. Other characters fulfilled different functions; Sandor added a refreshing note of humor, and kept this book from being completely dark. Other hemovores showed various stages of depravity that hemovores could fall into; the omnis in the book were generally sheep, but some were interesting.

The philosophical aspects of the novel were interesting, as well. The idea that hemes can never die, no matter what happens, is thought-provoking, and I would be interested to read more in Cole’s world. However, in order to keep control, hemes don’t use their teeth to bite; they use nails or knives or something for that purpose. That, however, reminded me a little too much of The Hunger (an R-rated movie with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve; not recommended for anyone under 18). I would guess that this book would be slightly more appealing to males than females, overall. Cole is very stoic and male, and that drove me crazy occasionally.

One thing that I was not exactly clear on was how this was categorizes as YA. Was it because of the shorter length? It seems to me that Cole himself is dealing with topics that teenagers generally don’t — he’s already found himself, he does have some friends, and his first love was some 120 years ago. Gordon, on the other hand, is of course dealing with all these things, and the contrast between him and Cole is interesting and perhaps what propels it into the YA age group, but I could also see adults finding this book just as appealing as YA readers. Overall, I’d rate it 4/5 stars.