Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting by Roseanne A. Brown || Vampire Slaying Meets Ghanaian Folklore

Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents best-selling YA author Roseanne A. Brown's middle grade debut about a pre-teen vampire slayer with a strong helping of Ghanaian folklore.

For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death.

That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats.

Serwa is the best adze slayer her age, and she knew how to use a crossbow before she could even ride a bike. But when an obayifo (witch) destroys her childhood home while searching for a drum, do Serwa's parents take her with them on their quest to defeat her? No. Instead, they dump Serwa with her hippie aunt and cryptic-obsessed cousin in the middle of Nowheresville, Maryland "for her own safety." Now, instead of crossbows and battle armor, she's dealing with mean girls and algebra, and for the first time in her life she doesn't have to carry a staff everywhere she goes, which is . . . kind of nice, actually.

Just as Serwa starts to get the hang of this whole normal girl who doesn't punch vampires every day thing, an adze infiltrates her school. It's up to her to whip some of her classmates into monster-fighting shape before all of them become firefly food. And when she uncovers a secret that upends everything she thought she knew about her family's role in the slayer vs. adze war, Serwa will have to decide which side of herself--normal girl or slayer--is the right one.

After all, seventh grade is hard enough without adding vampires to the mix.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• Lots of diverse characters with unique struggles
• Ghanaian folklore, myths, and gods
• Fast-paced adventure to new places (including, essentially, the underworld!)
• A super cute, unexpected squad
• A small mystery to be solved
• Adorable ancient mmoatia sidekick

Many thanks to Rick Riordan Presents and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

More Rick Riordan Presents? Why, don’t mind if I do! When I realized this book was by Roseanne A. Brown, I knew for sure I had to read it! Though I haven’t yet read A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (because I’m a slacker), I’ve continued to hear feedback about how awesome it is. So I had no doubt about this author’s writing ability. Plus, I actually don’t know a whole ton about Ghanaian folklore, other than a few of the gods, sort of in passing, so I was really curious to learn more!

Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting gives a Ghanaian spin on vampires. The book—filled with diverse characters, a fun squad, unique folklore, and lots of action—is a super fun quest story with plenty of humor.

I had a ton of fun with this book. It definitely didn’t disappoint (not that I thought it would). The overall story, in general, is fairly fast-paced, though the main focus of the danger varies. There’s a lot going on in this book, but it didn’t feel too crowded or like it was hard to keep up with all the loose ends as they came together. The magic and folklore in this is absolutely *chef’s kiss*. Creepy vampire insect thingies aside, this is definitely a world I’d like to visit!

If you aren’t familiar with Ghanaian folklore, you’re in for a treat! In true Rick Riordan Presents fashion, Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting has a bunch of really interesting folklore wrapped into the story.

If, like me, you aren’t as well-versed with Ghanaian folklore, you’re in for a treat. Surprises around every corner! I knew enough going in to know that it would be rich and interesting, and I was right. One of the things I love so much about the Rick Riordan Presents imprint is the way it exposes young readers to new cultures and beliefs, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed on that front.

Prepare to meet a new pantheon of gods, who are . . . well, about like you’d expect gods to be: haughty, distant, unpredictable. There’s magic, too, which is always fun. The magic in this book is based on adinkra, which is a concept I was aware of before going in. If you’re not, though, adinkra are symbols that have various meanings, and I highly recommend you look them up! They’re quite interesting, and I really enjoyed the way they were used with magic in this world.

Also, in case you miss it, there’s also a nod to the Tristan Strong series by Kwame Mbalia, which is one of my favorite RRP series, so of course I was excited to see the reference!

Meet Serwa Boateng, who has trained to be a Slayer since she could walk. But now she has her toughest mission of all: learning how to be a normal kid.

This includes going to public school (specifically, middle school) for the first time ever. So you can imagine the horror. A truly dangerous mission, right? As far as Serwa is concerned, she’d much rather be out facing vampires than other kids her age.

Serwa suffers from the same overconfidence that gets a lot of kids at that age. She’s so sure that she’s ready to be a Slayer and travel the world fighting vampires that she doesn’t realize all the things she’s missed out on. As she starts school for the first time, she realizes that she’s maybe not as prepared as she first assumed she was, because she can’t even manage to get on with a group of her peers. How’s she gonna be a Slayer?!

I loved this part, because middle school is hard. I’m sure middle grade readers who pick up this book can relate to that. Serwa is so incredibly competent and strong and well-trained, so to see her struggling just to make it through school is instantly relatable (and actually rather endearing).

The town Serwa finds herself in isn’t as safe as it first appears, but at least she’s not alone in facing the danger. She’s got a squad who can help her . . . if they don’t kill each other first, of course.

This is not the squad Serwa would have chosen, but it’s the squad that she needs. They just . . . don’t exactly get along. Which is maybe a little bit of a problem? In fact, they’re only thrust together due to mutual detention . . . which Serwa is to blame for. Not a great way to start out making friends.

Each member of the group has their own backstory and baggage they’re bringing to the table, of course. But as Serwa is finding out, everyone has their own unique talents, even if they don’t match up with the talents that Serwa herself values. I particularly enjoyed how this book made room for each of their unique personalities, like Mateo, who has a stutter and doesn’t actually want to hurt anything (but is also fiercely protective of his friends).

One of my favorites characters is actually a Mmoatia—a small forest dweller. He’s incredibly old and every bit as cranky as you might imagine someone would be after all those years. Which, of course, makes him delightful.

You’d be cranky, too, if you were perpetually forced to watch children who never listen to your words of wisdom. Of course, after you hit a certain age, almost everyone feels like a child to you, I’m sure. So there’s that.

Boulder, as he’s named, is a constant source of comedic relief . . . but also a voice of reason. Kids need one of those from time to time, am I right? Not that they often listen to him (see above). But hey, he’s there, and he’s snarky, and I am here for it.

Even though it’s not a huge focus of the book, there’s a small commentary about identity, racism, and finding a sense of belonging.

Serwa’s identity is . . . complicated. She was born in Ghana, then moved to the United States when she was little, so she doesn’t actually remember her home country. Her parents are both Ghanaian, though, and that’s the culture she was raised with, so she’s not quite American, despite living in the United States (especially since she hasn’t become a citizen yet). So where exactly does that leave her? She’s still working on figuring that out.

Serwa has also lived a fairly sheltered life, traveling with her parents and not interacting much with society. So she’s caught a bit off-guard when she encounters her first actual racist . . . made a bit more confusing by the fact that it’s not overt racism, either. It’s a steady stream of microaggressions that start with calling her by a different name and refusing to listen when Serwa tries to explain what her name actually is. At first, Serwa isn’t sure if she’s just being too sensitive, and she gives the person the benefit of the doubt, but as the story goes on, it’s pretty clear that she’s not the problem.

This isn’t really a sticking point, but it did bug the crap out of me, so of course I’m going to mention it. Serwa’s parents are really bad at parenting at the most convenient times.

I mean, I get it. They’ve got a lot going on, and they’re doing their best. But still. If you’ve got a kid who basically never really lies who tells you they’re in a dangerous situation, wouldn’t you give them the benefit of the doubt? Especially since you know they’re in a dangerous situation in general, you just happen to believe they’re safe where they’re currently at. (Even though you’ve believed the same thing before and it ended up being false, of course.)

I mean, Minion is far from a saint, but if she ran into my room and claimed a Chupacabra jumped out of her closet and started chewing her stuffed animals, I would give her the benefit of the doubt. Mostly because I don’t think she even knows what a Chupacabra is, nor how to pronounce it. But that’s not the point! Point is, it really irked me that these two otherwise very attentive, loving parents decided out of the blue that their kid was untrustworthy and immediately dismissed her concerns.

About Roseanne A. Brown

Roseanne “Rosie” A. Brown was born in Kumasi, Ghana and immigrated to the wild jungles of central Maryland as a child. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and was also a teaching assistant for the school’s Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House program. Her debut novel A Song of Wraiths and Ruin was an instant New York Times Bestseller, an Indie Bestseller, and received six starred reviews. She has worked with Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney among other publishers.

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