Sweet Blood by: Pete hautman By: Sadie Boyd

Reason why Pete Hautman wrote sweet blood Having recently read both Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, I had become fascinated with all things vampirisms. I decided to write a vampire novel. I moved from Minnesota to New Orleans and began my investigation into the dark and sanguine world of the Undead. At that time I knew no vampires, so I headed for the public library. Unfortunately, there were few vampire books available at that time. I was able to find only a handful of nonfiction books concerning vampire legends and vampirism, and perhaps a dozen novels. Not much to go on if I wanted to write the Great American Vampire Novel, so I expanded the parameters of my research to include all things blood-related. I soon found myself in the Rudolph Mates Medical Library at Tulane University searching for information on the nutritional value of human blood. I knew I could never write another Dracula, or another Interview with the Vampire--those books would each stand forever at the pinnacle of the genres they had defined. If I was to write a vampire novel, I would have to find a whole new approach. I needed a different sort of blood sucker. Using the only formal creative technique I knew, I asked myself a series of "what if..." questions. And the "what if...?" question I was trying to answer on that particular day was, "What if an otherwise normal human being were to try to live on blood alone?" The medical literature eventually revealed an answer based upon studies from, appropriately, eastern Europe, near Transylvania. During times of hardship and famine, blood sausage became a major component of some Slavic peoples' diets. Blood was relatively cheap, and was often given away free by farmers and slaughter houses. When times were hard, some of the poorer classes enjoyed blood sausage at nearly every meal. But how did this affect them physically? Blood, I learned, ought not be employed as a major food group--unless you happen to be a tick, a mosquito, or a vampire bat. Red blood cells contain large quantities of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin contains large amounts of iron. And iron is toxic to humans. The human body can metabolize some iron--in fact, it is a necessary nutrient--but not the amounts of iron consumed by, say, a vampire or a blood sausage fanatic. Over time, excessive iron intake leads to a condition known as hemochromatosis. That's Latin for "Got too much iron in me; sick as a dog." You don't have to be a blood drinker to get hemochromatosis. Most hemochromatosis is the result of a genetic inability to metabolize iron, and had nothing to do with diet. But whether it is a result of one's DNA, or a blood-rich diet, hemochromatosis victims suffer from more than their share of health problems. (Incidentally, the preferred treatment for hemochromatosis is regular exsanguinations, or bloodletting. So if someone in the "real" world decides to become a vampire, they will probably become a very sick vampire. And the treatment for their condition will be bloodletting. In other words, bloodsuckers are the cure for vampirism.)

Summery of sweet blood When Lucy suggests in a term paper that the symptoms of untreated diabetes might look a lot like vampirism, she gets in a world of trouble--her teacher thinks she's disturbed and her parents are worried. Then Lucy meets a man who claims to be a real vampire. There are only two races that matter: the Living and the Undead....and with every year that passes, the numbers of the Undead grow. It is inevitable. So says Lucy Sabot. She has a theory: Hundreds of years ago, before the discovery of insulin, slowly dying diabetics were the original "vampires." Lucy, a diabetic herself, counts herself among the modern Undead. As Sweet blood, she frequents the Transylvania room, an Internet chat room where so-called vampires gather to discuss all things Goth. But Draco, one of the other visitors to Transylvania, claims to be a real vampire -- and Lucy's not entirely sure he's kidding. As Lucy becomes more involved with the Goth/vampire subculture, everything in her life begins to unravel. Her grades plummet, her relationship with her parents deteriorates, and her ability to regulate her blood sugar worsens dramatically. Then she meets Draco face-to-face, and he invites her into his strange world. Lucy realizes that she needs to make some difficult choices -- if it isn't already too late. Pete Hautman's new take on vampires is a disturbing and fascinating story about an intelligent, cynical teen reinventing herself in the face of a chronic illness.

Info on sweet blood Details of Book: Sweet blood Book: Sweet blood Author: Pete Hautman ISBN: ISBN-13: , Binding: Hardcover Publishing Date: Jun 2003 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Number of Pages: 192 Language: English