Hearts & Other Body Parts

Debut novelist Bloom combines classic monster story tropes and characters with a modern high school setting in this clever if uneven comedy. Esme, Katy, and Ronnie Silver hail from a long line of witches, but their sisterly bond is broken when two very different boys enter their lives. The first is Franklin Norman Stein (yes, Frank N. Stein), who goes by Norm; a highly intelligent boy with acromegaly and various cancers, Norm has been reassembled in true Frankensteinian fashion after being cryogenically frozen by his genius father. The second boy is Zack Kallas, a vampire in search of new blood. All three Silver sisters fall for Zack, jealousy overtakes them, and they set about sabotaging each other’s chances with him via hexes and spells. Little do they realize that winning Zack’s heart means becoming lunch for Zack and his master, the Ancient One. Though the setup in this monster mashup is as slow as Norm’s shuffling gait, the story picks up as tongue-in-cheek humor and sharp-edged dialogue create spiky interactions among Bloom’s supernatural teenage cast. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)