Blog Post #15: The Slayer Chronicles First Kill by Heather Brewer- Archetypes

***SPOILER ALERT*** 
In the book, The Slayer Chronicles First Kill, the main character, Joss, is a vampire slayer in training. Joss witnesses his sister Cecile being murdered when he was just 10 years old. Joss know cannot stand the fact that she died because he thinks it is all his fault. Now his uncle Abraham, who is kind of one of the "leaders" of the slayer society, is training Joss who is now 13, to be a slayer. Joss had to go through his purifacation which is when he can't eat or sleep for 3 full days, he can only have water. During his purification, Joss fell asleep and the slayer watching over him, Malek, was murdered by a vampire while Joss was asleep. So then, Joss got purified the old fashion way, being whipped. Another character, Sirus, defends Joss after being whipped, Abraham wanted him to train immidately but Sirus stood up for him and did not let him train until he was fully healed. Sirus also has a daugther named Kat who is developing some kind of relationship with Joss.

I think in this book, Joss is definetely the hero. Joss displays courage. He will stop at nothing to hunt down that vampire that killed Cecile. Joss is brave, and fearless, everytime something tries to stop him, he thinks about Cecile, and that makes him man up immidately. Cecile is like Joss's medicine. He loved her so much, when she died, everyone mostly him, was devistated. Joss sacrificed many things. For one thing, he went through pain to become a slayer. Instead of walking away from his training, he sacrificed his life possibly, (since he is only 13 Sirus said he was lucky to be alive) instead of walking away and forgetting about Cecile, he held his head high and stepped forward. He was whipped 10 times but then, he still wanted to train after he went through all that pain.

I think in this book, Sirus is kind of the mentor. I say kind of because in the beginning, Joss looked up to Sirus, but when Joss got to the mountain to train, he looked up to Malek more. But now since Malek died, Joss looks up to Sirus. Joss respects Sirus and his choices. During the book, Sirus is kind to Joss, he stands up for what he believes him, and Sirus shows courage and bravery. I think Joss and Sirus are alike in many ways. One example of when Sirus shows bravery is when he practically yells at Abraham to not let Joss train because he is hurt. And for Joss, he was brave when he got whipped 10 times!!! Joss really appreciates what Sirus does for him as well, he doesn't say it, but by the way the author describes the looks Joss gives Sirus, you can tell Joss looks at Sirus as a good influence, a mentor. Sirus had lots of experience, the book never says exactly how long, but by the way Sirus knows how to handle Abraham, you tell infer he as been in the society for a long time.

The shadow in this story is just vampires in general. The vampires are the whole reason why this slayer society was created, why Malek died, and why Joss is going through all this pain and sorrow in the first place. Vampires are cruel things that feed on living beings, and it is down right wrong. I get how in stories some vampires don't want to be a vampire and feed on animals, or from Heather Brewer's series before this series, feed on blood bags from a hospital like Vlad in the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, it may still hurt people in some ways, but its better than just straight up killing them. It represents the darker side of human nature because they rely on others to survive, literally. They hunt down human beings and act like it's something natural, I get that some know it's wrong and don't want to, but some vampires don't care about others and just do it sometimes and feed on people whenever they feel like it. Vampires are the reason why Cecile is dead and why Joss is practically haunted every night.

I think the shapeshifter in this story is definetely Abraham. Abraham seems like the evil person most of the time, but so far in the story he doesn't seem completely evil. Abraham might have whipped Joss until he was unconcious, but he is helping him get revenge for Cecile's death. The reason why Abraham is the shapeshifter is because one minute he seems like he might actually care deeply for Joss, but than he goes back to only care about slaying vampires and not about his own nephew.