Monday, July 11, 2011

Review: Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Rampant
Synopsis:
Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns . . .

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one attacks her boyfriend—ruining any chance of him taking her to prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, all is not what it seems at the Cloisters. Outside, unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from bone-covered walls that vibrate with terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to her growing attraction to a handsome art student . . . an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

Pages: 416 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: HarperTeen
Released: August 25, 2009


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All her life, Astrid's mother has been telling her that unicorns are not the cute cuddly creatures we've come to know and love, they are actually dangerous man eating creatures. With fangs. The only protection that humans have against these ferocious creatures is getting unicorn hunters to deal with them. Unicorn Hunters are descendants of Alexander the Great and must remain virgins in order to fight unicorns. The moment you have sex, you lose your power.

Naturally, Astrid thinks her mother is crazy, I mean really, man eating unicorns? But when her boyfriend gets attacked by a unicorn and is saved by her mother, Astrid starts to see the world in a completely different light.

Astrid is sent to Rome to train with other girls to become unicorn hunters. All of the girls realize the dangers of fighting unicorns, but know that they are the only ones who can stop it. But because their magical unicorn powers stems from their virginity, they are also told to stay away from boys.

That doesn't stop Astrid and her cousin Phil to meet up with some boys. But as Astrid starts getting closer to Giovanni, she starts to question if this is really the life she wants to live.

Overall:

Rampant has been on my radar for awhile now and I was ecstatic that I got the chance to finally read it. I've only heard good things about this so I knew that this would be great, and for the most part it is. Astrid is quite a strong female, in fact all of the girls in the unicorn hunting business are. It was nice reading about them and seeing their struggles and hardships.

I didn't like that the subject of Brandt wasn't really discussed. After they find out he runs away, I wondered why no one bothered to find him. He does show up in the sequel to Rampant, so that does make up for that.

Another thing that I didn't quite like was the relationship between Giovanni and Astrid. I could tell they liked each other, but they only met a couple of times, so I didn't find their relationship all that believable.

Other than those two things, I liked Rampant. It's a fun story with a very original premise great characters and of course, Killer unicorns.

4 stars

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