To save the only life he's ever known, a tween vampire has to destroy it first in
Defanged
, a new speculative middle grade from author H.E. Edgmon.
Lux Priddy is a regular 12-year-old: he goes to school, hangs out with his best friend, Emma, and loves to pet every dog he sees. Except for one little thing - Lux is a vampire. And even though vampires came out of the coffin and into the public eye before he was even born, not everyone is happy about it. So when a group called Vampirism Sucks develops a cure, most people are thrilled. Lux? Not so much.
Humans might think his life is miserable, but he’s never known anything else. And he doesn’t think he even
wants
to be human. After all, what makes being a human better than being a vampire? After an epic escape out the window of a Vampirism Sucks facility, Lux finds himself in a secret underground vampire city - one filled with "bad" vampires, the kind his parents have always warned him about. But even though he's been taught to fear them, the people of Nox Urbus are the only ones that seem to understand him. And when the so-called cure stops being optional, Lux is forced to make a choice: go back home and submit to the treatment, or stand up and fight a corrupt system for the right to be himself.