Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls #1) by Tera Lynn Childs

Published: September 6th 2011 

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Hardcover, 345 pages

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. --GoodReads

2 and a Half Stars

Review

Okay, so this isn't exactly the latest and greatest book out there, so don't expect some knocking-off-of-the-socks-time. I really decided to do a review on Sweet Venom because we had a Freebie Alert and gave away a few free copies of the book a while back, which is probably over by now, so don't get your hopes up! Well, what the hey, right? The more reviews, the better, I say!! 

From what I remember, this book wasn't really outstanding, nor was it horrible. Which, by the way, was why I decided to give this guy 50%. I remember really liking the idea of this story that 3 totally different girls, although identical, could relate and connect to each other not by the fact that they're family, but because of monsters! Plus, who doesn't like a little bit of Greek Mythology in their life? I take a good dose every few weeks -- it's healthy for ya. 

As for the quality of the mythology, I thought Childs really explained and covered the story behind Medusa quite well. Seeing as this is the first book I've read where the heroine(s) is/are part snake-ish-medusa-ey, I really liked it. These days, most mythology YA Books are about heroes sharing the blood of one of the 12 original gods (i.e. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephastaes, Artemis, Apollo....the list goes on and on...)

What was very interesting and different for me in this book was the fact that it was narrated by each of the sisters. We, the readers, weren't limited to only one girls' perspective; we could experience the feelings, thoughts, ideas of each of them. I liked that; if I got pissed at one of them for doing something unbearably idiotic, the next chapter could be someone I liked! 

Personally, I enjoyed reading about Gretchen -- she knew what she wanted, and, not to mention, she knew how to kick some major monster butt! Readers can easily sympathize with the kind hearted, urban girl Grace, as she strives to turn her life around for the better. Greer, on the other hand, was a little hard to connect with, being the rich snobby know-it-all-only-child that she is, but soon becomes lovable in the end. With all three so different, it's almost impossible to not like at least one of them.

A turn-off for me in this book was the progression, and speed of the book. True, Childs needed quite a lot of time to introduce each character successfully without giving anything away, but how much quicker can you make an ending like that. No offense, but it was terrible. The climax happened so quickly and so fast, I had to flip back a few times over to see that it had really resolved! I swear, it happened in the last 50 or 60 pages or so -- out of 350!! That's like 14% of the book being spent to resolve the issue. Granted, as Sweet Venom is labeled as (Medusa Girls #1), and since I seriously doubt Childs wouldn't write a sequel, there'll probably more of a resolution and explanation as to why the first book ended the way it did.

I think that although Sweet Venom was a great book, it just didn't seem to have the right qualities for me that to make an AMAZING book.  

Also, I won't get into this much, but the whole idea of saving the world from evil as we are the only ones capable because we are half snake plot was so used and done before that it just wasn't special. If you're looking for a nice, relaxing book, Sweet Venom is the book for you.

Happy Reading Everyone!

Pre-order Sweet Venom at: Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ The Book Depository

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I just found out the sequel just came out a month ago! Here's a link! 

Sweet Shadows (Medusa Girls #2) by Tera Lynn Childs