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Alex Foulkes's Ghosts Bite Back is a spooky, very silly vampire adventure for 10 year olds about a girl with a ghost for a best friend and a mum who must never find out.
It's the second Rules for Vampires book and it picks up a few months after the first one. If your reader is new to Leo, start with Rules for Vampires (this one gives away how it ends).
Leo von Motteberg is a lanky grey vampire with needle teeth and a wooden leg her dad made her. Her secret best friend Minna is a ghost. Vampires and ghosts have been sworn enemies forever, so the two of them meet in the forest at night to practise fighting.
Then one snowy night a furious ghost comes howling through the trees after them. It knows exactly what Leo is. It brings a whole tree crashing down as they run.
The timing couldn't be worse. Leo's mum, the Great and Terrible Sieglinde, is hosting the Blood Moon Banquet in two nights' time. Every noble vampire family is coming. Mum wants everything perfect, from the candles to her daughters.
And Leo is not the perfect vampire daughter her parents think she is. They've even ordered a grand new portrait of her to celebrate, which only makes her secret feel bigger.
It's SO much fun to spend time in that castle. Marged the butler is an enchanted suit of armour who fusses like a nanny (her arm drops off at exactly the right moment). Rodrigo is a fist-sized spider who lives in Leo's sock drawer and complains about everything. Leo's big sister Emmeline is stuck in a baby's body and has the sneer of a teenager.
Leo stammers when she's nervous, which is a lot of the time. She's desperate to keep her ghost friend and her family well apart. Who hasn't tried to stop two bits of their life from bumping into each other?
It does lean into the dark side, though. The vampires feed on humans and nobody pretends otherwise. Minna happily runs her poker straight through Leo when they spar (it passes through without a scratch). Mum is genuinely frightening too. If your reader likes their spooky stories with plenty of jokes, they'll be right at home.
If they'd like a lighter vampire story after this, try Kevin the Vampire. Kevin's older siblings star in the family carnival, and he can't even manage to turn into a bat.
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