Published September 6 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books - ARC
4 Stars
Goodreads Review
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.
Review: Sweet Venom is an adorable tale about sisters finding each other and and finding the courage to follow their destiny. It's about different personalities coming together and learning how to coexist while they fight to protect their world. Mythological creatures are running amok and it's up to this trio of sisters to stop them, but are there even greater forces are work? How will these newly reunited sisters deal with their mythological legacy while still maintaining a social life?
First let me just say that I have a LOT of cover love for this book. For a modern retelling of the Medusa myth, there couldn't be more perfectly crafted cover art. The title of this book is also perfect, reflecting both the joys and troubles of three very different lives coming together as well as the sweet venom that sends the monsters back to their world.
The strongest part of this book were the characters. Even though Gretchen, Grace, and Greer are identical triplets, they live very different lives. Each chapter is told from a different girls perspective, so we as readers learn about their individual experiences and opinions which gives depth to the characters. Grace is definitely the most developed of the sisters and is more or less the main character though Gretchen and Greer are both given time to shine. I hope to read more of their stories in future novels.
However there were some weak point in this novel. First I think the cover, while being totally awesome, is a bit misleading. I thought this book was going to be a lot darker than it really was, and even though it wasn't poorly written, I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed at the lightness and simplistic nature of the novel. Secondly as the reader I was expected to know a lot of mythological creatures. They were named (Chimera, Minotaur, Saytr, Dracaena ect) but not described well. There were a couple of times where I had to go look up some pictures of the monsters so I would have a clearer image in my head. I thought the action was well described but the creatures themselves were lacking in imagery.
The ending is both good and annoying at the same time. The ending introduced a greater story arc that seemed like a much meatier plot than what was presented in Sweet Venom. Also, and I'm not sure if this is because I was reading an ARC (advanced readers copy), but the ending seemed very rushed and the final battles weren't explained well. There is buildup to an attack, but we never actually see the action nor how the heroine escapes which is very frustrating as a reader. I plan on buying a real copy of the book and I'm hoping the ending will be fleshed out more.
Overall Sweet Venom is a light hearted introduction to three very different sisters and their joined destiny. While it fell short as a stand alone novel, Sweet Venom is a great introduction to a larger story arc that had me totally invested.
Now Closed, Congratulations to AutumnRainFaery!
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