Adze are the only vampires I want to read about now. 

 

Roseanne Brown knocked this one out of the park! Vampire slayer + Ghanian folklore = YES! 

 

Serwa feels stranded between worlds: Ghana and American, her family and everyone else, her world of magic and monsters and then middle school. I loved that her answer to that feeling of displacement was to carve a space for herself AND to realize that she didn’t need to do it all on her own, even if she felt abandoned by her parents. Eunju, Roxie, Gavin, and Mateo all made me laugh. I loved the group dynamic, how they earned each other’s friendship and respect as they raced to save their school from the adze. 

 

I also really appreciated how this group — the kids of color at Rocky Gorge Middle School — had some hard conversations with each other and their teacher, Mr. Riley, about the realities of racism. They didn’t just talk about what was right or wrong, fair or unfair, but also how their experiences differ: Serwa, Roxie, and Gavin are all black. Eunju is Asian and Mateo is Latinx. Honestly, some of the teachers felt more monstrous than the adze. 

 

This book is an invitation into Ghanian folklore. Amidst the vampire-slaying adventure, Serwa discovers so much about her identity and what it means to belong somewhere. This vampire hunting guide is smart and funny and definitely proves that fighting monsters isn’t nearly as scary as being in middle school.