Saltwater Vampires is a really good book, it's not my usual type of book, but I actually really enjoyed it. At the very beginning all that was running through my head was "Oh my gosh, one of THESE books", over descriptive books that ramble on and on about something so unnecessary; those types of books that bore the hell out of you and are quite well at inducing headaches. I thought Saltwater Vampires would be one of those books, but I was wrong. I hate to admit it, but I was. The first two chapters were kind of boring, but afterwards I started to really enjoy it. That came as quite a shock to me.

I think the characters play the biggest part in a story. If you read a book with really boring characters, you're obviously not going to like it, basic maths, but if this said story has great lively and interesting characters, you're bound to love it. I can't say that the characters were full on and completely awesome, but they were close to it. One character that stood out to me, though, was Kelly. She wasn't perfect but she was good at what she loved and that's what made Jamie like her. She was a strong-willed girl and I really liked that about her.

The story, switching between point of views, kind of got me confused. It had a rocky flow, but changing points of views is not something that can easily be done. Naming a chapter 'So and so's point of view' takes away the effective awesomeness of the title of a chapter.

The end of Saltwater Vampires was an exciting one and I'm not disappointed. It had everything you need: a finish that doesn't leave you confused, action and resolved problems; all great qualities in an ending. I thought Saltwater Vampires pulled it off. I thought Saltwater Vampires pulled it off wickedly.

I'm not saying it's the greatest book ever, but it's a really good one. It's a book I'd recommend to my brother or even my mum. It's one of those books that you'll forget about for a while, but when you start reading it again you'll never know when to stop.

Surf, shipwrecks, murder, vicious vampires, mates and a music festival... Saltwater Vampires is an originally Australian tale.

Based around, the very real and, historically documented ship ‘Batavia’ and its voyage of 1629, which ended by being shipwrecked off the coast of Western Australia, followed by mutiny and murder. Kirsty Eager has taken the basic events of a historical event and twisted them into a unique tale that is certain to appeal.

Our protagonist, Jamie Mackie, is a pretty normal teen growing up in a small beach town. He surfs, hangs with his mates, and is completely baffled by girls.

Although Saltwater Vampires starts off with a promise of being a very gory book, it, thankfully, doesn’t quite live up to the implied potential. There are a few twists in the story, but nothing that comes completely out of the blue. As an adult reader I found myself just relaxing into this story after the initial cold-water shock of the prologue.

There is a definite dry humour that is best delivered by teenage boys
“ ‘Maybe it’s a little bit infected.’ The way Tanner said it made Jamie worry that his neck might be a little bit infected in the way that you can be a little bit dead.”

There are a few subplots that stretch out the story, but I found these a little too much of a deviation from the main plot. We have the back-story of Dale and Jamies falling out, we’ve got a bit of a back-story of Dales home life, and we’ve got a bit of a back-story of Jamie and Kelly’s falling out. These back stories seem to be there purely set up a moral lesson about not judging book by covers, or perhaps walking in other people’s shoes. Obviously whatever moral lesson we’re supposed to be learning was lost on me. Jamie has a revelation about how Dale was feeling lost and confused, and Dale has the revelation that Jamie was really just trying to be a good friend.  Although the falling out between Dale and Jamie needed to be explained, we could have done without the full back-story – particularly as it was drawn out to be a ‘twist’.

I found the story a little jerky in places, as though the author desperately wanted to add an idea or explain something, so just put in an extra sentence. One of these was Willem; the genius, metal head friend. He’s the one that knows everything about vampires, and the history of the area, and particularly the history of the Bativa, so has the most potential to know about these particular vampires, but he stays relegated as a secondary character, which is a shame, partially because I actually liked how he was being developed, but mainly because it would have tightened the whole story up to have Wilem there talking to our ‘friendly’ vampire Clifford, rather than leaving this as plot filler for later.

Despite this slightly stilted flow, the basic elements of the story are both great fun and original; there is a depth to the plot which weaves historical elements into the story, twists them up and spits them out with a wonderful modern flavour. The overall effect is an enjoyable read that I’m sure teens will not be able to put down and adult readers will find to be light but interesting reading.