⭐️⭐️ /2 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review!

Youngblood is a story about Youngblood Vampires, especially Kat, who goes behind her mom’s back to get enrolled in an elite boarding school for vampires. There she becomes roommates with Taylor, her ex-best friend.

I’ve been having a very hard time trying to write this review and it mostly has to do with the very mixed feelings this book gave me. While I wasn’t very overwhelmed or moved by this story, I did enjoy it. There was just this nagging feeling I kept having while reading it. Something was really bugging me and I just couldn’t put my finger on what was causing this feeling, but I knew it wasn’t something good. It was like having eaten something you don't like and having this nasty aftertaste that just won't go away. After putting it to rest for a few days it finally clicked. I was actually really disappointed by the racism and blatant disrespect in this book.

While I liked the plot itself, the execution was poorly done. I understand that Kat grew up with humans and thus has other views, but the contrast was just made way to big. As if she was better than everybody else, because she did ask for pronouns etc. It became a bit annoying actually how much it was emphasized that she did ask and the rest ignored it. It made Kat annoying and repetitive and it made all the other elite vampire seem more racist.

I found it also rather disrespectful how the only Asian character, from who it is specifically mentioned she is Chinese, is sort of painted as this bad person, because she ensues violence and has this “We elite are better than all other and thus why should we care about those beneath us” attitude, which is really harmful. It became uncomfortable to read the scenes such as the penthouse party due to this.

Another reason I found this book disrespectful and racist is a passage said by a character (honestly, I already forgot his name). His mother is from colonized India and brought to England(?) by his father. Him saying “It wasn’t like that” really turned my stomach. HOW can you put something like that in a book? It should never be even mentioned like that. It really felt like the author just made a character biracial, to just ignore the non-white half of this character and disrespect that.

The disease as well really reminded me of AIDS/HIV as I kept thinking about it. Something that was first discovered in the 60s, uncurable and people who are trying to find a cure for it. While that doesn’t have to be a problem necessarily, it is just another drop in the bucket for this book. it felt way too much like our real-world was added in a fantasy book.

The romance part of this book, which was quite a focal point of this story, it was also poorly executed. The build-up felt forced and a bit weird. Kat suddenly asking if she was gay and her “realization” were weirdly done and not believable to be honest, which made the relationship fickle.

The ending was also something which seemed unbelievable. A bunch of teenagers letting everyone hear the truth and suddenly they are believed and all is good. It seemed like a rushed and not thought-out ending.

Overall, the concept and plot were a good idea, but it was just executed really poorly and the racism and disrespect added to that made it a book I wouldn’t recommend.

There were antisemetic elements present in the story, such as a Jewish-coded villain.

The author uses racist and homophobic remarks to character the main character as “woke.”

In addition, there’s an Asian side character in the text; this character, despite being on the cover, doesn’t play a big role in the story (apart from on specific event, in which they are negatively portrayed/characterized).

There is also a remark about the British colonization of India not being “that bad.”

I wish this author hadn’t used harmful dialogue to characterize the MC, or keep her around for centuries just to prove she’s “woke.”

There is also a Harry Potter reference in this ARC, which is being taken out of the finished edition of the book.

After being alerted to these problematic elements, I won't be reading my galley of Youngblood.

so... let's get into this. i was about legitimately *just* about to start reading youngblood when a fellow reviewer on instagram (@bookstagramrepresent) posted about the racist and ableist shit that this book contains.

please go read their post for a detailed breakdown, but a basic gist: there were token bipoc characters, racist apologists, and multiple instances of ableist language and comments. not to mention the fact that there were harry potter references. how is that still happening?

seriously, all of this is just unacceptable. white queer authors, editors, and their respective publishing companies need to do better. don't read this book.

Youngblood is a story that balances a whole list of elements: queer romance, vampire society, political upheavals, elite boarding school, and conspiracy theories. And it manages to combine it into a book that delivers characters who are complex and endearing with a mystery plot which will keep you on your toes. This dual POV story begins with us getting to know the elite vampire society. Through Kat's perspective, she's trying to unravel the mystery of why her mother doesn't want her to go to boarding school. All while figuring out her own place as someone who was always on the outside.

Whereas for Taylor, she's been in this society for so long - and an outsider in her own way - but hasn't made the leap. Is still judging and witnessing from the sidelines. However, she's all too ready to watch them all burn around her, she just needs the right push. In Youngblood, both Taylor and Kat have to navigate their feelings for each other, what it means to be a vampire, and their own future.

I was really excited for a queer vampire story set at a gothic boarding school. What I got was racism, weird homophobia, trying to explain away colonization and so much more (all of it bad)

First of all these characters were not very likeable (which is the least of their offenses) They had very little character arc and suffered from a mega dose of the misscommunication trope that made this book hard to read. On top of that this book is far too long and the story just kept going in circles and getting nowhere until the last 100ish pages.

Now, onto the problematic bits (most of the book):

Kat has this holier than thou attitude because she grew up with humans, asks people's pronouns and does the bare minimum. She has all these grandious thoughts about equal rights yet ignores those ideas to try to fit in with the people who make her feel icky for what reason exactly??

Galen, one of the main charcaters is biracial but not really? I think his nonwhiteness was maybe mentioned once and in a weird "looking for sympathy because there is so much pressure on me" type of way and then never again.

Taylor and her "relationship" with Evageline made me uncomfy, she'd go from making out with a girl one chapter to using lesbian as an insult the next and while it was adressed that it wasn't okay, she never changed and she herself did not see a problem with it? Yet she then ends up being friends with the girl she was insulting??? Make it make sense

HP references

There was a whole pasaage in here trying to explain away white colonization and it was icky and I'm not sure how it made it in the book in the first place (I read an arc so maybe it got fixed (taken out) in the final copy?

Not to mention the ONE asian charcter in the book was a plot device for the white main chacter to see more problems with the vampire world and was reduced to violence.

@bookstagramrepresent has a much better breakdown of all the problems over on instagram and storygraph

I was incredibly disapointed with this book and it makes me angry that such a great concept became so riddled with problems.

Though I was very excited to read this book, a trusted BIPOC reviewer came forward calling out the racism, ableism, and antisemitism ingrained into the story of this book, and I don't feel like reading and supporting a book containing those aspects. There are negative comments about BIPOC students in higher education, a token Asian character inflicting violence, racist apologists that aren't called out, unnecessary Harry Potter references (come on, it's 2022), ableist language (for example, the use of the word lame), and it falls into antisemitic vampire tropes, with a big evil group trying to control the world with blood and money. Do better.

I loved everything about this. You've got a boarding school setup that has a similar vibe to The Vampire Academy and The Magicians, as well as a sweet coming out story. I was invested in the main characters from the very beginning, and even found myself hoping for a happy ending for the resident mean girl at the end of the book.

Kat struggles throughout the novel in coming to terms with her queer identity, and it was so real and familiar to moments I had in my own coming out. She goes back and forth between who she should be with, and what is the right thing to do, even doubting that her feelings mean what they do. Despite this novel being fantasy, it's such a real take on what it is to be a young queer female.

This book also tackles harder real-world discussions that are far from fantasy as well. The main characters point out a couple of different times that BIPOC students are few and far between on campus, and that there seem to be very few out LGBT students as well. It was so, for lack of a better word, refreshing, to see characters tackle those difficult discussions and point out the lack of diversity of the campus. Throughout the book Kat and Taylor call out for change, from the way human vampire interactions are handled, to Hema cost and distribution, to the diversity mentioned above. Their calls for action and change throughout the book are one of the major reasons why I loved this book so much.

I was excited to read this book from the moment it was announced, and I loved every second of it. I had it read in 48 hours, and it was a perfect standalone.

This was a pretty fun YA novel, and I'm glad it featured lesbian/sapphic rep, though I do wish that it it didn't dwell as much on homophobia and regressvie/oppressive structures as much as it did. I see WHY it did, but I would love more queer joy/unbridled exuberance in my YA horror/vampire stories, rather than fighting against conservatism.

Lesbian vampire boarding school romance with secrets? Sign me up!. It's cool having. Vampire book where being a vampire + normal life is just an every day thing for one. Add some Sapphic romance & one next friend action and the book is perfection

Youngblood by Sasha Laurens is a YA fantasy standalone novel. We meet Kat Finn, our heroine, who is a vampire, living with her mom, among humans; they must drink Hema, a synthetic blood substitute to survive. Kat is happy being friends with many of her human classmates, but knows that she and her mother barely scrape by. Kat is thrilled to learn that she has been accepted to Harcote School, an elite private school for young vampires only, especially for the wealthy; someone anonymous has paid all her expenses. Kat’s mom does not want her to go, but she wants to learn more about youngbloods like herself, especially having been isolated from vampires all her life.

Taylor Sanger, the second heroine, has attended Harcote for three years, and is shocked to learn her new roommate is a former friend, who she hasn’t seen in years. Taylor hasn’t forgotten that Kat and her mother left a long time ago, without saying goodbye; and both remain distant though civil. Taylor is openly a proud lesbian, and avoids Kat, who joins with some of the mean girls, as well as the school hunk, Galen Black. In a short time, Kat begins to have some feelings for Taylor, but still pushes herself to see Galen, since she considers herself straight.

When Taylor finds her favorite teacher dead, they both become entangled in a dark conspiracy that threatens Vampiredon. CFAD, is a blood disorder in humans that is fatal to vampires; Hema is the blood substitute vampires use to stay alive. With the death of the school teacher, Taylor and Kat learn from archives that a cure has been found to allow vampires to be able to use human blood. Who is behind the murder of the teacher, and why they want to stop the possible cure?

What follows is an excellent story that towards the end, became very exciting. As we get closer to the end, Kat realizes her feelings for Taylor has gotten stronger. Kat was a great heroine, always independent in doing what she thought best, and not allowing others to change her mind. Taylor was also great, not caring what people thought of her, and determined to discover the truths. I really enjoyed Youngblood, which was well written by Sasha Laurens.

1/5 stars

I was not a fan of this book.

I was really excited to pick up this book — queer, vampires, boarding school, and friends to enemies to lovers — it was everything I wanted. And unfortunately, the only thing I really enjoyed was just the world and the concept of the vampires and the disease. Sadly, it’s all where it kind of stopped.

There were unnecessary racist and homophobic remarks — all to prove the point that the main character, Kat, is a woke white person. She was the only one who cared that there were 7 black people in the school only to be responded with something along the lines of “why would any black kids come here when there are people like so and so talking about how much they lost during the civil war?”, she was the only one who cared when the LI was teased for being gay, the only one who cared about social justice clubs, about how the main bad boy’s mom was from pre-colonial India and his dad was from the British trading company — with said main guy stating “it wasn’t like that.” It was all made to make it look like Kat was this amazing and good person because she got to hang out around humans growing up.

I’m not a fan of revised history fantasy books where vampires are around for centuries and there are a myriad of other ways to show how good a character can be — and the author uses racism and homophobia as a medium. It’s unnecessary and far too white savior.

There’s a scene where Kat is trying to figure out if she’s gay and recalls her two human friends. She states that she was always the token straight ally, and the one time she asked her gay friend how he knew how he was gay and his response was “you just know you’re gay, you don’t find out.”

The main disease had similarities to HIV/AIDs, it came about 50-60 years ago, no one really has a cure, people are still looking for a cure (but not really), and because of this disease, the population for older vampires had died out. But there was nothing expanded on regarding this.

The romance wasn’t really there. The two girls didn’t interact a lot, so there wasn’t a lot of chemistry, and it didn’t really go from there. They were somehow all of a sudden in love with each other after one weekend where they spent most of the time watching Twilight.

The wrap up to the big problem was rushed and not developed at all. Everyone believed a group of teenagers during a school performance and that’s how they fixed it.

Overall — worldbuilding and the concept was a good idea. But everything else was poorly executed and not thought out, at all.

review ♥
youngblood- sasha laurens
★ ★ ★ ★

•an elite vampire boarding school
•wlw romance
•queer vampires
•best friends to enemies to lovers

Katherine Finn has always known about being a vampire but has never fit in with the vampire community or made any vampire friends. After deciding to apply to the prestigious Harcote School without her mom’s permission, she gets accepted with financial aid. Although her mother is furious about this decision, Kat decides to pursue her dreams and fit in with other youngblood vampires her age.

Taylor Sanger has been in love with Kat since they were small children. She is the only openly queer student at Harcote and struggles to fit in with the others. When Taylor finds her favorite teacher Mr. Kontos dead, she and Kat have to come together to uncover the truth and evils behind the beloved community called Vampirdom.

Youngblood was such an exciting, romantic, and mystery-filled read. I loved Kat’s character and how this book shows the struggles and self-worth that come with understanding your identity. Kat and Taylor were the cutest! I wish they had realized their feelings for one another were mutual earlier in the story!!! But honestly, that is what makes this book so real. Overlooking the Vampire schemes and secrets, this book is about finding yourself and accepting who you are. The plot twists and mystery aspects were fascinating and fun to figure out. Even though I knew who was behind the entire power plot, I significantly enjoyed reading through Kat and Taylor’s story. There were so many small details that added up to the answers I was dying for (pun intended)!

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy romance filled with vampires, lgbtq+ characters, and an exciting mystery behind the evil schemes in a vampire world, this book is what you need!

Thank you to @penguinteen for sending me an eARC of Youngblood!

From beginning to end I was thoroughly entertained. I didn’t want it to end. This book was a blast to read.

Kat is a Youngblood vampire living among humans and having to keep her identity a secret. When she applies to the prestigious Harcote school for vampires - and gets in (much to her mother’s dismay) - her world is about to drastically change.

Kat would have never imagined that her new roommate would be none other than her ex-best friend, Taylor, the girl who betrayed her trust and stomped on their friendship.

Thrust into Vampiredom, Kat is convinced this is the place that will really make things happen for her and her long long future, but things are not at all what they seem at Harcote. There is something evil afoot and Kat not only learns secrets the school is harboring, but learns some deep rooted history of her own.

This was so great. I had fun the entire time reading this. There were things that both Taylor and Kat did, ways they acted toward other people for their own gain at times, that annoyed me (causing me to remove a star from a potential five star rating), but the whole of the book makes up for it.

Honestly, this was fantastic. It's between a 4.5 and a 5 for me. It does some really interesting things with the vampire trope, including vampires watching Twilight.

The heart of the book is about indoctrination and it very much feels like a commentary about Baby Boomers and Gen Z. There's also lots of great conversations about being queer, including gender envy and compulsory heterosexuality.

Despite all this the book stays pretty light hearted. I think there's massive teen appeal and I can see teens picking this up for a fun read and really resonating with the larger plot lines.

Three years have passed since Kat Finn and Taylor Sanger’s friendship abruptly ended and Kat’s mother moved her to Sacramento, leaving behind their vampire community to live among humans. Ever since, Kat and her mother have struggled to make ends meet, and with the rising cost of the blood substitute Hema which all vampires are dependent on, they’re barely getting by. So when Kat is offered a spot at the prestigious vampires-only Harcote School, with full funding no less, she goes against her mother’s wishes and accepts the offer, eager to meet vampires her own age and carve out a future that doesn’t include living alone and in poverty for eternity. So when Kat arrives at Harcote and is assigned Taylor as a roommate, she’s less than thrilled.

Taylor and Kat haven’t seen or spoken to one another in three years, and both hold their own separate truths about why their friendship ended, neither eager to move past it. But when the two of them overhear a conversation about a teacher that ends up dead, they realize that they may have stumbled upon secrets that could unravel the vampire world as they know it, and the only way to solve it is to put the past aside and work together.


Despite not having read many vampire books since my Twilight phase, I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this book. Sapphic best friends to enemies at a boarding school were all it took to have me intrigued, with vampires being an afterthought, so I was quite surprised when I found the most gripping part of the book to be Sasha Laurens’s uniquely crafted world of vampires. The world that she has created, with a society of vampires fully dependent on a blood alternative due to a virus affecting the blood of humans, ends up going so much deeper than being a story about vampires. This is a vampire book, yes, but with the creation of the expensive blood alternative Hema, the focus is often shifted to classism, allowing for a constant and biting social commentary as well. (See what I did there?).


Brimming with suspense, masterful storytelling, and a complex queer love story weaved throughout, Sasha Laurens gives us a new kind of vampire story with Youngblood. While vampire books have come to be known as steamy romances this book’s main focus is not romance. Instead, Laurens gives us a complex, anti-capitalist story that centres a vampire world much like our own: power-hungry, elitist and concerned more with protecting its traditions than it is with protecting its people. A timely story along with being just plain fun, this young adult fantasy will appeal to readers of all ages.

This was what I have been looking for in YA Vampires. I got tricked by one book because it had nothing to do with Vampires.

I thought this was good. I kept turning pages! It was hard to put down because you gotta find out the ending. I think this will be a great one for the YA audience!

4.25⭐️ I had high expectations book because it sounded like it would be perfect, and I was not disappointed! Youngblood had an amazing plot, but more importantly, it had incredible characters. The growing relationship between Kat and Taylor made me want to just skip to the end to see if they end up together, but the plot made me want to never finish it since I enjoyed reading it so much. this is such a great book and I’m definitely going to buy it when it comes out!

Kat is a teenage vampire who has lived among humans most of her life. But she is desperate for more than a life of hiding, and barely scraping by, constantly in danger of not being to afford more Hema, the blood substitute she drinks so she doesn't have to feed on humans. When she gets the news that an anonymous donor has paid for her to attend an elite vampire boarding school, Kat sees it as her chance to truly find her place within vampirdom, and save her and her mother from their troubles. But when she arrives, she realizes there may have been a reason her mother was so desperate to keep her away from the vampire world.

This story was such a fun read that combined vampires, boarding school, sapphic romance, enemies to lovers, and social commentary all in one. I was surprised by how smooth all the vampire lore and world building went. It was extensive enough to create a fully-fleshed out and interesting society for our characters to live in, but not so much that it bogged down the fun contemporary setting. It was also jam-packed with really nuanced social issues and questions of sociology and ethics that went beyond the basic vampire tropes. The romance was sweet, the plot was exciting, the characters were distinct, and the atmosphere was A+. Highly recommend!

*Thank you Penguin Teen for this ARC!

Everything I could have asked for from a boarding school lesbian vampire romance, and more, holy cow.

I cannot exaggerate how much of an absolute delight this book was. It was tropey and messy and mysterious and dramatic in all of the best ways. Our POV characters Taylor and Kat are a perfectly imperfect pair. Baby Butch Taylor, out and not-quite-proud, and "I didn't know I was a lesbian" Katherine have their own personal stories to sort out, yet they orbit around each other as ex-best-friends to rivals to roommates (oh my god, they were roommates) all while nefarious deeds dare to interrupt their classic high school cliches.

Laurens doesn't shy away from using the historical tropes and adages about vampires and melding them into a 2022 contemporary, complete with acknowledging the over abundant whiteness and heterosexuality that tends to persist. Coming from white protagonist Kat, it often feels just the tiniest bit white-savior-y, but nevertheless I'm glad it was included as more than a throw away line trying to insist that the main characters were "woke" enough.

I'm also just glad that young lesbians are allowed to be messy, make mistakes, date the wrong people, argue and bicker and fight, and still be all around good people. Side characters who I never expected to feel a shred of sympathy for grew on me. The plot, while predictable at times, was still gripping. The pieces fell into place at the exact right pacing and it was fantastic.

I adored so much about this book. It seems like the subgenre of lesbian vampires can simply do no wrong.

This book is something I've always needed, always wanted but never knew it. Well I had some hunches...
Supernatural/Vampire stuff is not usually my thing, the genre is pretty saturated after Twilight and the copy cat spawns. This is completely unlike those. This is more like the Simon Snow series by Rainbow Rowell, hell I could see these happening in the same universe, these books flip the common/semiplayed-out ideas and tropes and make them into something magical... something... gay. I am so grateful that I got to read an arc of this book and cannot wait for my preordered copy to arrive in a couple of weeks. I just know I'll be thinking about these characters for a long while.

Try this out if you like new (gayer) takes on YA staples and a whole swirl of tropes in one.