Monday 18 June 2012

[REVIEW] Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Published: September 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Medusa Girls #1
Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.(
From Goodreads)


This book is a story adapted off the whole Medusa story.  Clearly I read this book during my "mythology books faze" (hence, the mythology) and I must say that it was an interesting book.

First, when I saw that there would be more than one main narrator, I got nervous. I don't like more than two narrators just that I find more than two tends to ruin the book for me since I get so confused trying to keep track as to what happened but Tera Lynn Childs does an excellent job making all three of the sisters flow when they tell they're story.  She also does a really good job giving each of them a distinct personality that makes it harder to mix them up, making it easier for me to read it.  I was never lost during this book, or confused as to who was speaking - which is good, very good. I also really liked the varying personalities.  Sometimes it gets monotonous with one speaker, especially if they're very boring but all three of these main characters has a distinct manner and it's intersting to be reading one chapter with a concerned narrator to a chapter with a narrator who is a fashionista.  I enjoyed that imensely.
My one concern about this many narators is that each narrator has a different love interest, which may get confusing later on in the story.  Can't wait to see what will happen.

Second, the whole concept of this book is old but new - modernized I should say.  The whole monsters coming out of portals and only the chosen one can see who they are has been done over and over again. Take Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is sort of like that so if you're a Buffy fan, definitely give this book a try.  Anyway, the one thing I found unique about this is the whole spin off the Gorgon sisters.  Perhaps I've just never read a story with it before but the way the myth was integrated into the story was amazing.  It really did sound normal, in the context of the story of course.

Lastly, I have to say that the cover was what first attracted me.  I'm a firm believer that if a cover sucks, you're not going to enjoy the story as much.  Seeing this cover, I had already a sense that I would like it and of course I did so bravo whoever designed the cover. You did an amazing job!

So if you're a fan of mythological inspired fiction (i.e. Everneath) and enjoy good old action than you'll definitely enjoy this book.

MEH

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