Fawn’s Blood by Hal Schrieve, Published by Triangle Square, September 2025

In this paranormal YA fantasy filled with complicated queer characters –
human and vampire alike – we are cheering for queer teens, Fawn, Silver, and Rachel –
all three simply trying to survive in a world that wants them dead. 

Fawn and Silver are teenage trans friends from a small Maryland town who are totally obsessed with vampires – who in this story really exist - though they exist in a legal gray area, sometimes registering with the government and applying for services, and at other times being treated as second class citizens, living in hiding, and constantly worrying about being hunted and killed by vigilante groups called Slayers, who mistakenly believe all vampires pose dangers to human life.  When Silver disappears, and his family says he died, Fawn is convinced that he actually ran away from an unhappy home to become a vampire himself and hideout in Seattle’s thriving vampire community.  Fawn decides to run away from her home too, as her homelife isn’t any better than Silver’s, and to find her friend/boyfriend on the west coast.  As the story begins, Fawn is hitchhike across the country to Seattle in search of Silver.  Unlike Silver, Fawn doesn’t necessarily want to be a vampire, but she is intrigued with the idea of meeting and becoming friends with vampires, some of whom might even enjoy drinking her blood.  She even dreams of having Silver drink her blood, when they eventually meet up.

Meanwhile in Seattle, Rachel is a bisexual teen who is working side-by-side with her mother in a vampire slaying all-girl gang.  One night, Rachel meets her match when an evil vampire named Cain turns Rachel into a vampire against her will.  Suddenly, Rachel must exist in two conflicting worlds: the world of her mother and her mother’s vampire slaying friends who love Rachel, but don’t fully trust her now that she is a vampire, and a new world of being a vampire herself, which entails  attending a government sanctioned school for vampires in the dead of night, and getting rationed allotments of blood at government authorized vampire blood distribution centers.  Rachel learns firsthand that not all vampires are bad.  There are many trustworthy respectable vampires who just want to live alongside humans in peace and harmony.  Maybe if vampires and humans worked together, vampires could get the adequate blood that they need to live healthy lives, and perhaps vampires and their venom could help solve human medical issues like Covid, HIV, and AIDS.

The three teens’ lives converge in Seattle, where Fawn, Silver and Rachel find themselves in an organized vampire underground filled with hidden tunnels and secret bars, youth shelters, punk shows, and safe houses.  There is also an organized resistance growing among the vampires as they work to keep each other safe through a network of blood distribution and protection centers, so that they are not killed by slayers, or taken advantage of by a government that wants to use them for experimental artificial blood research.

This novel of teen rebellion, friendship, and bloodsucking is ripe with hope for a better world in which minority and outcast communities are on the receiving end of friendship, understanding and support.

Hal Schrieve (ze/hir) is a children’s librarian in Manhattan who writes books and comics about teens, queer community, monsters and aliens.  Ze also enjoys facilitating comics and creative writing workshops with young people.  Ze is the author of several YA novels in addition to Fawn’s Blood, including:  Out of Salem about zombies and werewolves (which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2019) and How To Get Over the End of the World, about a telepath, a queer youth group on the brink of disaster, and trans teens making music.  Hal’s comics are featured in We’re Still Here, an all-trans comics anthology, and the zine Very Online.  Hir indie graphic novel Vivian’s Ghost was on the shortlist for Comics Beat’s 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award for Best Webcomic.  Follow Hal at @howlmarin on Instagram and @hal_schrieve on Twitter.

This book review was submitted by Stand with Trans advocate Barb Shumer, past board member
and retired public librarian.