# of Pages: 345
Time it took me to read: 3 days
# of pages a day to finish in a week: 50 pgs
Rating: 5 out of 5
Grace, Gretchen, and Greer could not be more different. Grace is a quiet computer nerd who strives to save the environment. Greer is rich, popular, and strives to be a senator someday. Gretchen escaped abusive parents at a young age, and ever since then has dedicated her life to hunting the monsters that appear all over San Francisco…before the monsters can hunt the humans. What these girls do have in common is that they’re triplets, separated at birth, and they all have the power to see the monsters.
Suddenly everything begins to go awry. Gretchen’s mentor, the woman who taught her everything she knows about being a huntress, has disappeared, and the monsters begin to break the rules they’ve always been bound by. Will the sisters be able to see past their differences and work together? Or will the very power that brought them together keep them apart?
Okay, first off, you know that spiel I went on last week about how I like it when YA books transcend their genre? If you don’t, then go back and read my review for Elusion. Anyway, so I gave this book 5 stars, but this book does not transcend genres. This may seem like me going back on everything I said before, but hear me out.
I’ve read several other books by Tera Lynn Childs. Primarily her series about mermaids. And I have to say, that every book I’ve ever read by her has just been amazingly fun to read. Like I tear through her books because they’re very engaging and and fast paced. And her characters are always just plain adorable, and her worlds so magical.
But this book is very firmly in the realm of YA. Like, if you don’t like books that were clearly written for readers aged 14-16, you will not enjoy probably anything that Tera Lynn Childs has written. However, what makes Childs stand out from other YA books that don’t transcend genre is that she doesn’t try to. Childs has found her niche, and she is very, very good at what she does. I mean, I’m 23, but did I still thoroughly enjoy reading this story about long lost triplets who fight mythological monsters? Yeah. But not all 23 year olds, in fact I’m going to hedge the bet and say that most 23 year olds wouldn’t like this book as much as I did. But I’m young at heart, so what can I say?
Alright, age range aside, I’ll get to the reasons why I gave this book a 5 star review. I’m an enormous sucker for any YA book that takes a spin on Greek mythology. Percy Jackson isn’t the only one out there, folks, just in case you were wondering. It’s turning into a whole sub-genre, and one that I could not be more in love with. I also really appreciate that Childs did something pretty unique in terms of the world of YA Greek myth books. Her characters are the descendants of Medusa, the mortal Gorgon best known from the Perseus myth as the monster with snake hair with eyes that turned people to stone.
Well, Childs spins her as a good guy that was totally persecuted by the Gods because they were jealous. It’s something I’ve never seen done before, and I liked it very much. It was very obvious that Childs did her research, but she also took lots of liberties and made the story and the characters very much her own, which I liked a lot. Several of these Greek myth YA books either try and borrow characters and stories too heavily from myth and don’t do enough research and make it nearly painful to read for someone who has studied a lot of myth. Anyway, so far A+ on the mythology aspect of this story.
The writing itself is great, and the pacing fantastic. I read the book in 3 days, 3 work days mind you. That basically means I couldn’t put it down. Were there parts of this story that were fairly predictable? Sure, but there were also parts that surprised me. The characters had a pretty basic story arc for each of them, but they had all of the components of a well rounded, three-dimensional character, so that’s fine.
I’m going to try and not do sequel reviews on this blog any more. That’s right, every book I review is going to be an original. And I do promise to try and get more regular with the reviews coming up soon, it is taking me much longer than I anticipated to get my schedule regulated. But I’m finally done working 6 day weeks, so hopefully I’ll be a little less tired.
If you liked Sweet Venom, try: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
Sarah's Shelf 