Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner

In this new graphic novel AJ has a crush on a girl who is obsessed with vampires.  When they get put together on a history project about Transylvania, he decides to pretend to be a vampire to impress her.  Little does he know that she is not a Bella, but a Buffy.  AJ fnds himself desperately trying to convince her that he isn't really a vampire, while discovering that another he knows may not be faking it.

I thought this was a pretty funny book.  Gardner has fun with a lot of vampire tropes, especially those found in the Twilight series.  She adds in a cute relationship between AJ and his older sister, and between his two best friends who are always competing against each other.  I wouldn't call the illustrations awesome, but they convey the awkward junior high social drama believably enough.  This is a good choice for boys or girls who like Telgemeier's graphic novels. (336 p. 2018)