Goodreads Summary: "Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns...
Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.
Or not.
Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.
However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student ... an attraction that could jeopardize everything."
I've been a horse lover since I was a kid, of course that love of horses transferred over to loving unicorns as well. So to say that I was skeptical of a novel about murderous, violent, killer unicorns is a total understatement. I wanted nothing to do with it. Than I read Zombies Vs Unicorns where Diana Peterfreund has a short story; I hadn't even realized that it was the same author until I found myself really enjoying the story and looked her up so that I could read more of her work. I was in shock. This author had managed to make me, a total equine lover, believe that unicorns could be killing machines. And it made for a great story!
In regards to how I felt about the short story, Rampant did not disappoint. In all honesty it took me awhile to get into Rampant, I was a little put off by the writing style but once I had gotten fifty or so pages under my belt I had really grown to like the writing style. Diana Peterfreund has a way with a storyline. Anyone who can take a mythical creature that people grow up with thinking that it's fluffy, cute and oh-so-innocent and turn it into a ferocious beast obviously is talented. The history that she had created for the unicorns and hunters was interesting enough that I wish a companion book would be published that was just of the mythology.
Astrid was a total kick-a** heroine. I'd put her right up there with Katniss, of Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games, and Katsa, from Kristin Cashore's Graceling. I put her in the same category as these two amazing heroines because like them she wasn't immediately set on her path, she didn't want to fight; in fact, all that Astrid wanted was a normal life. But it didn't take long for her to grow fond of those around her, to make her own little family out of those that she had come to love, and once she had come to care about these people she was a fierce warrior in their honor. She would allow nothing to happen to them. This is why I loved her so much and feel that she deserves the afore-mentioned company.
All in all I was really impressed with this novel and I'm giving Rampant by Diana Peterfreund a four out of five stars review. I already have Ascendant on request at the library and I'm looking forward to seeing how Diana Peterfreund chose to continue Astrid's story, along with that of her fellow hunters and the unicorns that have come out of exile.
No comments:
Post a Comment