I’ll admit—when I saw that DES was about supernatural teenagers, I flinched. Curiousity and boredom convinced me to give it a shot, however, and I’m really glad I did.

DES has the stereotypical supernatural creatures, and the typical love triangles of all other teen soaps in the genre, but manages to fuse serious issues into it. DES explores the effects of domestic abuse, rape, racism, classism, sexual orientation and chronic illness on the characters and their families. Sometimes she hits the nail on the head, and sometimes it’s a near-miss. Still, I applaud her for giving the tough topics a voice through her characters.

DES also manages to give each main character a personality filled with quirks and twists. Every time I start to think a character’s too Mary Sue, they get knocked down three pegs, and vice-versa. Rarely is any one character universally loved, and if they are, it’s not for long. It helps keep the main characters relatable—nobody is perfect, but at the same time, nobody’s completely evil, either.

That said, there are a few cardboard characters—the evil mother, the sex-starved principal, and the bully, to name a few.

Hopefully those problems/areas get fleshed out more as the series continues, but even if they don’t, it doesn’t detract too badly from the over-all enjoyment of the series.

Another plus of the series is the occassional pop culture references—a lot of modern shows and books are "re-vamped" (oh, the punnage) to apply to their world. It’s kind of fun to play ‘spot the references.’

If you like teens, vampires, and ensemble casts, or found yourself wishing "Twilight" dealt more with hot topics, give DES a try.

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As ironic as it seems, I’m always a little wary when it comes to anything directly relating to vampires. I become even warier (is that a word?) when it comes to teenage vampires, as they tend to carry around enough angst to fill a 55 gallon drum. However, after reading the member reviews about the quality of work that was [more . . .]

I confess I was skeptical when I saw that this was about vampires and other paranormals.  It’s a trend that seems to be everywhere these days and I expected to see more of the same-old.

To my surprise, DES is full of real, thoughtfully-drawn characters who don’t succumb to the cliches [more . . .]

Dead End Streets had me hooked from the first few chapters, and it keeps me coming back for more. The author takes modern mythology and makes it her own without losing any of the things that make a vampire a vampire, or a werewolf a werewolf. Her vampires hate sunlight and drink. Her werewolves are cursed to change shapes on [more . . .]

Summary: The story follows a group of magical creatures, mainly Succubi/Incubi, Vampires, Werewolves, and Humans, in their senior year of high school. They deal with love, life, and learning how to accept themselves as they prepare themselves of the future or realize that they may not have a feature because of their heritage or condition.

[more . . .]