SCREAM STREET: FANG OF THE VAMPIRE (BOOK 1) - Tommy Donbavand

Luke Watson is your average pre-teen kid.  Well, with the exception of the werewolf thing, which he can't control and only happens when he's really angry.  But after one of his lapses almost gets a fellow classmate injured, the Government Housing of Unusual Lifeforms (G.H.O.U.L.) is forced to step in, and before they know it Luke and his parents wake up the newest residents of Scream Street - a gaslit, always-nighttime community of zombies, monsters and creatures of the night ruled over by the dictatorial, cigar-chomping "landlord" Otto Sneer.  Luke makes a couple of friends his age pretty quickly - Resus the vampire with long, pointy nails that can pick locks, and a Hermione Granger-like mummy named Cleo - but when he learns of a book that could help him collect six relics to help him to send his human parents back to the real world, the trio of kids set out to find relic number one.  A fun and well-written book that will appeal more to kids than adults, with good messages about friendship and acceptance - but for me it just felt too short, ending too abruptly; I would have preferred one long book telling the whole story, instead of what feels like the first part of many that will keep you reading ... and goad you into buying the next book.  3/5 stars