Monday, October 8, 2012

Josie Griffin Is More Kickass Than A Vampire...But Not By Much


Published:  September 13th, 2012
Josie Griffin Is Not A Vampire
By: Heather Swain
Speak
ISBN-13:  9780142421000

A hilarious take on the paranormal trend--Twilight meets The Breakfast Club!

When former good girl turned rebel Josie Griffin gets busted for what was in her mind perfectly acceptable revenge on her cheating dog of a boyfriend, she lands herself in anger management therapy. It could be worse: it could be juvvie, or she could be a zombie cheerleader like the rest of her former friends. But there's something strange about therapy--these are not normal kids. There's the wannabe ladies man with a weird accent, Johann; the blindingly gorgeous Helios; Avis with his wild dreads; and Tarren, the sprite of a girl with a wicked temper. And all of them keep talking about "powers." Josie knows that has to be impossible, but strange things start happening, and nothing weird ever happens in Indiana. After all, there're no such things as vampires, werewolves, Greek gods, or fairies . . . right?


Review
 
     Josie Griffin had the perfect boyfriend, great best friends and was living the teenage dream as a popular high school cheerleader.  Than she found her boyfriend kissing one of her BFFs - and found out the other supposed best friend knew and didn't say anything.  So you can't really blame a girl for busting out his windshield...right?  Except now she's court ordered to attend anger management therapy and do community service.  Not so bad, except when she lands in a group where everyone believes they're a mythological creature.  There's a vampire, a shapeshifter, a fairy, and what might be a Greek God.  Then girls from the shelter that Josie is working off her community service at begin to disappear.  It's up to Josie and her new friends to figure out what's going on, before it's too late for the girls that are still left.  But can Josie fit in with these kids, even though she's just a human?  This book started off very promising and I was laughing during the first few chapters, at Josie's fun personality and cheering for her continued strength.  It didn't last.  Josie stays consistently okay as a lead character, but is very shallow for the entirety of the book.  She never undergoes any real character development and neither do any of the others, especially her love interest Helios.  I felt like the more interesting characters in this were Tarren (the fairy) and Kayla (one of the girls from the shelter).  It was very predictable, in a Saturday night B-movie kind of way.  I smiled a few times, but overall I really did not connect with this one at all.  The resolution to the mystery was very obvious throughout the whole book and it made me groan at the cliche of it all.  A cute read, but nothing deeper below the surface. 
 
VERDICT:  2.75/5  Stars
 
*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  It became available for purchase or at your local library on September 13th, 2012.*


No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are much appreciated and I always read them with a smile on my face! :) While I appreciate the thought, this an award-free blog as well. I just don't have the time to keep up with it. Thank you for my smiles and please share your thoughts! Also, sorry for the Captcha, but I've been getting a lot of spam lately!