Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs
Buy Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Stereotypical characters and a frustrating ending make this one hard to recommend. Given the author's excellent track record I'll be hoping book 2 is more satisfying.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 368	Date: September 2012
Publisher: Templar Publishing
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1848779327
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Grace is the new girl in San Francisco, who can't understand why she's seeing weird creatures whom no-one else seems to notice. Gretchen is an experienced monster-hunter. Greer is a socialite. The three of them look eerily alike - what's their connection, and can this mismatched trio of teens defend the world from the demons who seem to be appearing with ever-increasing frequency?

I jumped at the chance to review this one because I loved Forgive My Fins, a breezy and adorable look at mermaids. Sadly, Childs hasn't pulled this one off with the same flair. While the writing is engaging and easy to read, most of the main characters are all rather sterotypical - Grace is the good girl, Gretchen the jaded combat veteran, and Greer the snobby rich kid. As supports, we get two mysterious boys and a wise mentor. It feels a bit too much like paranormal fiction by the numbers to really capture my attention.

I was also irritated by an ending which fails to resolve anything much - there are at least four big questions left unanswered in the wait for the sequel - so reading this one was rather unsatisfying for me personally.

It's not all bad, by any means - I like Childs' writing style, she has some great dialogue, particularly from Gretchen, and she captures San Francisco well while the mythology of her story (based on the premise that the Gorgons weren't villains, but heroes who got bad publicity from Athena) is interesting and, from what she's revealed so far, seems well-developed. I'm enough of a fan of the author's to give the series another try with the upcoming Sweet Shadows and it's certainly better than the last Medusa adaptation I read.

Overall, though, I'd be tempted to suggest waiting for book 2 to come out and seeing what reviews are like for that one before jumping into this series.

As mentioned earlier, I absolutely loved the first book I read by Tera Lynn Childs, Forgive My Fins, and anyone who enjoys her writing style will almost certainly love that one. For a non-paranormal tale with three mismatched teen girls narrating which I'm recommending wherever I can, The Anti-Prom by Abby McDonald is one of my favourite reads for ages.

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