The Awesome
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow
Source: NetGalley (Released May 26th 2015)
Seventeen-year-old Maggie Cunningham is tough, smart, and sassy. She's also not like other girls her age, but then, who would be when the family business is monster hunting? Combat boots, ratty hooded sweatshirts, and hair worn short so nothing with claws can get a grip, Maggie's concerns in life slant more toward survival than fashion or boys. Which presents a problem when Maggie's mother informs Maggie that she can't get her journeyman's license for hunting until she loses her virginity.
Something about virgin blood turning vampires into pointy rage monsters. Blood and gore and insides being on the outside and all that.
Maggie's battled ghosts and goblins and her fair share of house brownies, but finding herself a boy - fitting in with her peers - proves a much more daunting task than any monster hunt. Did you know normal girls don't stuff their bras with holy water balloons? Nor do they carry wooden stakes in their waistbands. And they care about things like "matching" and "footwear." Of course, they also can't clean a gun blindfolded, shoot a crossbow, or exorcise ghosts from a house. Which means they're lame and Maggie's not. Because Maggie's awesome. The Awesome, in fact. Just ask her. She'd be more than happy to tell you.
After she finds herself a date.
Before I start this review, I would like to say that although I did enjoy this book, it just seemed far too young for me. I’m not sure what it was about this particular book but it did feel like I was reading a children’s book, as opposed to a young adult book, and with the main character being 17, I didn’t expect for it to be like that.
Anyway, the book starts and we are introduced to Maggie Cunningham. She’s 17 and lives alone with her mum. She seems like a pretty ordinary 17 year old…until we get told that she and her mother are monster hunters. She started her monster hunter training when she was 13 years old and has been in love with it since.
There’s a problem though. Maggie is still a virgin and apparently, your virginity makes you irresistible to vampires…and considering she has to hunt vampires, it makes the situation a little tricky. Maggie decides that she just wants to get her first time out of the way and goes to a party to try and rectify the situation with a guy she just met. It just so happens that this guy gets so drunk, that he passes out on top of her halfway through sex (to be fair, I found this part laugh out loud funny, just one of those situations we’ve all been in where we just think ‘oh god, why me?!’)
Ian (passed out during sex guy) and Maggie end up seeing each other a lot more and I did end up loving their relationship. It was relatable and realistic. (Well, besides the whole monster hunting side of things).
Although there is a lot of humour in this book, there are some serious storylines; such as Maggie getting kidnapped by ghouls, Maggie’s mum getting taken by a Vampire Prince, Maggie becoming room-mates with a new found zombie; there are so many storylines within this book but it’s easy to stay on track and follow them.
The secondary characters; I did find myself liking Ian; I’d say he was the only character I really warmed too in this book. He seemed like an average 17 year old boy and he was easy to relate too. I really couldn’t connect with Maggie’s mum. She said some pretty awful things to her daughter throughout the book which had me cringing inside. I mean, my mum and I are ridiculously close but some things should not be said.
In my opinion, this book just tried a bit too hard to be funny. I mean, some parts were funny and I did laugh out loud but it seemed every other line was some kind of joke or innuendo and it got a bit tedious. I felt like I was hanging out with a 14 year old boy, as opposed to a 17 year old girl.
If you are looking for an easy, light-hearted book, this is definitely for you. I finished the book within a few days and if any more Maggie Cunningham books were released, I’d definitely read them because it wasn’t a bad book; just a bit different to what I’d normally read. It was filled with action and fast paced. Overall, an average book for a reader like me. (Definitely read if you’re slightly younger than I am though, you’d definitely enjoy it more than I did!)
No comments