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Welcome back to the Boogie Mansion. And as you all know, Monster High as a doll line has been through many generations, but by far the most beloved was Generation 1. You all know the story.
A detailed review of the Monster High novel Once Bitten, Twice Dead, exploring its plot, fan reception, and whether it deserved the criticism.
Key Takeaways
- Once Bitten, Twice Dead was heavily criticized by fans for lack of originality and problematic content.
- The novel's plot and character changes sparked controversy within the Monster High fanbase.
- The reviewer finds some merit but largely agrees the book has significant flaws.
- The video serves as both a critique and an invitation for fans to explore the story themselves.
- Monster High's Generation 1 continues to have a passionate and protective fan community.
What the video covers
- Monster High's Generation 1 is the most beloved era, originally running from 2010 to 2016 with a revival starting in 2022.
- In October 2023, Monster High partnered with IDW to release new comics set in Generation 1's canon.
- A new novel titled Once Bitten, Twice Dead centers on Draculaura dealing with her father Dracula's death and turning human.
- The novel received mostly negative fan reception for being derivative, having inappropriate elements, and questionable plot choices.
- Key plot points include Draculaura's transformation into a human, her romance with a human named Po, and school chaos involving monsters and normies.
- The story includes controversial character developments such as breakups and new relationships among the main cast.
- The reviewer reads the novel fully to assess if the backlash was justified.
- Critiques include bland characterization, underdeveloped subplots, and overly descriptive romantic scenes.
- Despite the negatives, the reviewer encourages viewers to read the novel and form their own opinions.
- The video concludes with an apology for the negative tone and thanks viewers for watching.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Monster High Generation 1 and recent revivals
- 00:58Initial fan reactions to Once Bitten, Twice Dead
- 03:04Plot summary: Draculaura's transformation and school chaos
- 04:09Character relationships and controversies
- 06:16Romantic developments and key scenes
- 07:16Draculaura's confession and human world interactions
- 08:17Climax and school conflict with normies
- 09:17Reviewer's critique and final thoughts
- 15:52Conclusion and viewer encouragement
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Came out in 2010, ended in 2016, disappeared from 2018 to 2020, but it came back in 2022 when we got reproductions of G1's first wave. This continued with lines like Haunt Couture, Neal Drama, and other miscellaneous dolls. While there was no media to
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It came out in 2010, ended in 2016, disappeared from 2018 to 2020, but it came back in 2022 when we got reproductions of G1's first wave. This continued with lines like Haunt Couture, Neal Drama, and other miscellaneous dolls. While there was no media to
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But wait, there was media. In October 2023, Monster High revealed that they partnered up with IDW to release a new comic series set in G1's cannon.
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coincide with these, fans were still glad to have somewhat of a return to G1.
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human guy. Well, that's a bit weird, but surely the book was still going to be awesome, right? Upon its release, Once Bitten, Twice Dead received a very negative reception. Fans criticized the novel for being derivative of past material, inappropriate elements and
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But wait, there was media. In October 2023, Monster High revealed that they partnered up with IDW to release a new comic series set in G1's canon.
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if Once Bitten, Twice Dead really deserve the hate. Without further ado, let's get into the review.
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Alongside this, a new book was announced titled Once Bitten, Twice Dead. The novel was going to center on Draculaura in a plot about her dealing with the death of her father, Dracula, the school going crazy, and her falling in love with a
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is dying due to an improperly treated sunburn. Usually, some medicine would have him covered, but his practitioner gave him an ointment that contains silver, lethal to vampires and werewolves as well. Draculaura passes out from the shock and awakens to a pile
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human guy. Well, that's a bit weird, but surely the book was still going to be awesome, right? Upon its release, Once Bitten, Twice Dead received a very negative reception. Fans criticized the novel for being derivative of past material, inappropriate elements and
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like Lagona and Gil breaking up. I I know people are happy about that. And Claudine and Tori getting together.
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scenes involving the teenage cast, and some questionable plot choices. This led to many fans not even giving the book a shot. But today, I, the Boogie Mansion, will take on the herculean task of reading this novel myself to determine
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being at school, but is saddened by him not caring about her once again. All of this overwhelms Draculaura to the point where she runs away to the human world.
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if Once Bitten, Twice Dead really deserves the hate. Without further ado, let's get into the review.
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human to Po, taking on the name Laura, and the two hope to meet again.
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Make sure to like and subscribe. For the purpose of context, let me do a quick summary of the plot relatively quick. Anyway, one summer, Dracula visits his house at Monster High with Dracula. While there, he reveals that he
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Deuce breaking up with Cleo. Meanwhile, Draculaura begins to notice strange things happening to her, like not getting sick from garlic, the sun not burning her, and a shadow following her around. When she returns to Monster High, all the lockers slam shut.
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is dying due to an improperly treated sunburn. Usually, some medicine would have him covered, but his practitioner gave him an ointment that contains silver, lethal to vampires and werewolves as well. Draculaura passes out from the shock and awakens to a pile
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human. More weird stuff continues to happen at the school. Students powers going haywire, buns and burners going off, and a pack of scargoy attacking the students. When Dracula walks down the hallway, she sees Twilight and Scal Wait wait
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of dust that was once Dracula. After that, she kind of keeps to herself because, you know, the whole her dad dying thing. And the next semester, Dra finds out she's missed a lot of stuff that happened with their friends,
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Due to the incident, many students are sent home and Gory Fangtel is even transferring back to Belelffrey Prep.
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like Lagoona and Gil breaking up. I know people are happy about that. And Claudine and Tori getting together.
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Dra tells Gulia about what's been happening to her, and Gouia assures her that she'll get a cure for her humanness in no time. During that, however, a blood etching appears on the wall written in Latin. That was my best attempt at
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Also, Claudine and Draculaura broke up offscreen or off page rather. Love at first. Things get worse when Cleo's dad, Ramsay's Denial, aims to take Dracula's former spot as Monster High's head of school board. Cleo is glad about her dad
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community is wary of monsters and how the Van Hellscream society is planning something. So yeah, uh the two end up kissing. It's very descriptive, almost a whole page worth of details really. But this passionate moment is interrupted by
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being at school, but is saddened by him not caring about her once again. All of this overwhelms Draculaura to the point where she runs away to the human world.
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and Po is largely accepting, if a bit confused. His dad tries calling him, but he doesn't pick up, citing how he's been hard on him lately. Drax sends him an eye coffin so they can contact each other. That night, Frankie is trying to
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While there, she meets Po. He's a human guy who is at the graveyard in remembrance of his mom. The two bond over their shared grief, and Draculaura takes a good look at Po's bodily features. Draculaura lies about being
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Eventually, Dra gets Po's message, and they start to FaceTime. They each talk about their lives, and Po presents the possibility that when Dracula fully turns human, he could show her around the normie world. Dra is like, "OMG, yes." So, they agree to date. Before the
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human to Po, taking on the name Laura, and the two hope to meet again.
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Later on, Po drops Draculore off at Frankie's home, and she heads to the Ghoul's Knight. Around the fire is Abby, Claudine, Frankie, Lagona, and Toali.
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Draculaura returns to Monster High to see a group of humans filming monsters before running off. Because of this, Ramsay announces that all extracurriculars will be cancelled due to the incident. Cleo and Deuce get into an argument over this that ends with
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human problem. At the coffin bean, Gulia tells Dra that in order to regain her vampirism, she'll need to drink the blood of a human. And if she waits too long to do this, she might not be able to survive the retransformation process.
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Deuce breaking up with Cleo. Meanwhile, Draculaura begins to notice strange things happening to her, like not getting sick from garlic, the sun not burning her, and a shadow following her around. When she returns to Monster High, all the lockers slam shut.
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Well, not really. With all this nonsense happening, Dra decides it's finally time to come clean about turning human.
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Draculaura checks her locker to find a strange book that reveals some shocking info. Monsters who were turned into vampires will regress to their original species upon the death of the person who turned them. Draculaura is turning back into a
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This conversation is interrupted by normies who've broken onto campus. Everyone is sent into chaos, but they eventually run off and Blood Good has everyone take attendance. Everyone's name is called except one, Frankie.
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human. More weird stuff continues to happen at the school. Students' powers going haywire, buns and burners going off, and a pack of gargoyles attacking the students. When Dracula walks down the hallway, she sees Twilight and Scal—wait, wait,
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one seems to recognize him, even though that movie should have happened based on Gory being there. But I digress. He states that he's going to terminate Frankie and all the other monsters before the stream cuts off. The ghouls
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[Music] wait, Twilight. But yeah, Twilight and Scalita are applying burn cream on their wounds, which I'm not really sure how that works for Scalita, but I digress.
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off from the school. Finally realizing they're in over their heads, Nefra and Ramsay's escape with all of their treasure. In the library, Gulia reveals to Dracula that the blood is required message means that her blood is required. The protections on the school
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Due to the incident, many students are sent home and Gory Fangtel is even transferring back to Belelffrey Prep.
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With one final kiss, Draculaura begins to drink Po's blood. The transformation seems like it failed, but Draculaura turns into a bat and flies over to the school. When she arrives, she uses a blade to give her blood to the school,
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Also, apparently Tori saw Jackson pee his pants. Sorry, Jackson and Hulk fans. You're never going to win ever.
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Apparently, she smells like firmaldahhide. They use all their powers to free Frankie, but end up getting caught, except for Cleo. She threatens the normies with a relic of ancient power, snake stone, which is what Cleo calls Deuce's. Yeah. The normies buy her bluff
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Dra tells Gulia about what's been happening to her, and Gulia assures her that she'll get a cure for her humanness in no time. During that, however, a blood etching appears on the wall written in Latin. That was my best attempt at
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Cleo, and they kiss, and they're back together. Skipping forward in time, Draculaura is now the head of the school board and she's got a lot of responsibilities to deal with. But even though things are changing, Draculaura knows that her friends will always be by
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pronouncing that. But yeah, that translates to blood is required. Oo, wow. Po arrives at the cemetery and he and Dra talk for a bit and eventually the topic shifts to the monster video and Po talks about how everyone in the
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You know, instead of actually having to read it. So, I'm not really sure where to start with this section. I guess I'll address the controversy around Once Bitten, Twice Dead. As mentioned at the start of the video, this book caught a
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community is wary of monsters and how the Van Hellscream society is planning something. So yeah, the two end up kissing. It's very descriptive, almost a whole page worth of details really. But this passionate moment is interrupted by
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train wreck. But after reading Once Bitten, Twice Dead myself, I can safely say that the book wasn't that bad. But you want to know something crazy? I honestly wish it was as terrible as people said. You see, once been Twice
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Po's mouth bleeding. He calls out in terror that Draculaura has fangs, and from the shock and the blood, Dra passes out. She wakes up to Po by her side and comes clean about the whole vampire thing, her turning human, all the works,
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Seeing her deal with the aftermath of that loss and the emotions that came with it was honestly gripping. Combine that with Ramsay's scheme, which while it's a bit derivative of Buork Buork, I was intrigued to see where the plot
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and Po is largely accepting, if a bit confused. His dad tries calling him, but he doesn't pick up, citing how he's been hard on him lately. Dra sends him an eye coffin so they can contact each other. That night, Frankie is trying to
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As a character, he's extremely bland. We don't get to know him all that well outside of his romance with Draculaura.
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set up a girls' night, but Dra is still anticipating Po's message. On her TV, she sees Ramsay going on about his campaign, and surprisingly, Medusa appears talking about how she wants to keep her baby Deuce safe from normies.
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yes, but besides that, the relationship is mainly just flirting and YA romance tropes, but okay, a a little shallow romance is whatever. Monster High is no stranger to that, but with those instances, they're usually not the main focus of the narrative. In the 27
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Eventually, Dra gets Po's message, and they start to FaceTime. They each talk about their lives, and Po presents the possibility that when Dracula fully turns human, he could show her around the normie world. Dra is like, "OMG, yes." So, they agree to date. Before the
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more interesting, but because they're not romance related, they don't get as much focus. Because of that, it took me forever to actually read this book. I could have had this video out like months ago if I like really locked in,
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girls' night, Dra leaves for a date with Po, and the two hike up a trail. They enjoy a picnic with a great view of the summit. Spending this time with Po has made Dra consider that maybe turning human wouldn't be so bad after all.
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abilities as a writer or saying that she should never pick up the pen again. In fact, all of this stuff is just my opinion, and I encourage you to read the book for yourself to form your own opinion. Moving on from the Draculaur
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Later on, Po drops Draculaura off at Frankie's home, and she heads to the Ghoul's Night. Around the fire are Abby, Claudine, Frankie, Lagoona, and Tori.
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This book is already very derivative of past entries in the franchise like Fried On and Ghoul's Rule, but Buork Buork is no exception to this. It's been twice now that we've seen the story play out with Ramsay's pressuring Cleo into
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They're also joined by Deuce, who's in a hammock sulking over Cleo. Tori takes him home, and Draculaura sits down to eat some snacks. Draculaura visits Po's house. They make out, yada yada. Oh, wait. Gulia's found the answer to Dra's
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up and get back together again. Ramsay's plotline doesn't go anywhere either. He spends most of the book going for the school board position, but in the end, he just runs away with Nefra, which I guess is supposed to serve as a contrast
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human problem. At the coffin bean, Gulia tells Dra that in order to regain her vampirism, she'll need to drink the blood of a human. And if she waits too long to do this, she might not be able to survive the retransformation process.
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breaking up, which I can't can't necessarily complain about that one. Claude and Draculaura breaking up and Claudine getting together with Tori. I don't have a problem with any of these changes on paper, but for shifts this major, I would have actually liked to
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Draculaura is taken aback by this and wants to hold out on telling the other ghouls about the human stuff. The next day, Draculaura finds Lagoona walking around with pink scales. That's right, y'all. The moment you've all been waiting for. Lagoona got boiled alive.
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together. Moving on from that, let me be positive for a bit. I like the main Ghoul's inclusion in this book. They were all personified pretty well. Well, except for Laguna. But I really like the portrayal of Frankie and Tori. The
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Well, not really. With all this nonsense happening, Dra decides it's finally time to come clean about turning human.
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Another part of the book that I really liked was the insight into Draculaura's relationship with her mother. Getting to see Camila's diary entries detailing her life, fond memories with her daughter and Dracula, and her final thoughts before she died were really cool. So,
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Claudine and Lagoona are mad at her and take off, but Frankie gives her a big hug and is glad she knows the truth now.
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wrong way. Lots of overexaggerations about the novel's content led people to believing it was offensively bad. But Once been Twice Dead's biggest offense to me was just being boring. While the book had a lot of interesting ideas in
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This conversation is interrupted by normies who've broken onto campus. Everyone is sent into chaos, but they eventually run off and Blood Good has everyone take attendance. Everyone's name is called except one, Frankie.
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encourage you all to read it for yourselves to get your own opinion. Who knows, maybe you'll like it. If you made it this far into the video, I want to thank you greatly. I apologize for how negative this video was, but the good
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She's been kidnapped by the normies. A video begins to play on all the school screens of Frankie tied up. A man walks in frame and reveals that he is Van Hellscream. That's right, the Van Hellscream from Fried On. Strangely, no
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commercial ranking that I promised a while ago. So stay tuned for that. If you like this video or excited for upcoming content on my channel, then like, subscribe, and turn on post notifications to catch the next upload.
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one seems to recognize him, even though that movie should have happened based on Gory being there. But I digress. He states that he's going to terminate Frankie.
Topics:Monster HighOnce Bitten Twice DeadDraculauraMonster High Generation 1IDW comicsMonster High novel reviewfan receptionMonster High charactersMonster High controversyMonster High book critique
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