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First impressions: From page one, I knew I was going to like this book. Astrid is reading a gag-inducing unicorn tale to her babysitting charges, and introduces us to her feelings on the subject. She's snarky, irreverent, and convinced that her possibly crazy mother has warped her with tales of man-eating unicorns while growing up. I. Love. Astrid.
Lasting impressions: Diana Peterfreund has managed to blend the most ridiculous fantasy element of all time - unicorns - with the most realistic portrayal of a teen I've ever read. Sheer genius.
Conflicting impressions: Virgins! Again with the virgins! Puh-lease. And that's all I have to say about that.
Overall impressions: One of my favorite scenes in all of comedic film is in the movie Dodgeball, when Vince Vaughn's character goes to Christine Taylor's character's house for the first time and discovers her eerie obsession with unicorns. Do you know why that scene is so damn funny? Because no self-respecting grown woman would surround herself with that much lavender, sparkles, and horned white horses. It would be like carrying a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper into a business meeting.
Astrid would find that scene funny. She practically chokes on the words while reciting that same kind of fluffy unicorn tale to the kids she's babysitting. You see, in Astrid's mother's world, unicorns are fearsome fanged beasts that survive on the flesh of mammals. Astrid, of course, thinks her mother is a whack-job. While everyone else grew up thinking unicorns were majestic, beautiful creatures, she wound up with the mom whose unicorn stories were completely terrifying.
I loved Astrid's healthy skepticism. It made the story more believable, and allowed her to make all of the snide, disparaging remarks we readers are wont to do when confronted with reading material about unicorns. When I gleefully showed off the cover and first page to my husband, I think he actually considered divorce.
Once I settled into the narrative, things moved right along. Astrid almost immediately encounters a breed of unicorn called a zhi, which not only doesn't attack her, but bows. Like, might as well wear a skirt and curtsy, bows down to her. Right before lunging its fanged mouth at her boyfriend and roughing him up pretty good. After this near-death experience, Astrid's boy toy ostracizes her and her mother sends her to Rome for unicorn huntress camp.
I know. Stay with me.
Because Astrid has managed to stay a virgin (sigh), and because she comes from a long line of fancy pants unicorn huntresses, she dutifully goes off to Rome. She figures she'll spend her time learning Italian and seeing the sights. When she arrives, she's in for a rude awakening. Her roommate is an even more emphatic huntress than her mother, excitedly blabbing about killing and training and displays an act of Pure Crazy so shocking I almost stopped reading. I'm glad I didn't.
This book is not lacking in the blood-and-guts department. It's a book about hunters. They hunt and kill. It's what they do. So there should be no surprises on the violence front. Perhaps the thing I struggled with the most, however, was how easily Astrid came to accept this part of her duty. Natural instinct kicks in when she gets around unicorns, and I get that killing a beast that's trying to kill you is easier than killing an innocent puppy. But although she experiences remorse after her first kill, she did seem overly accepting of her killer instince and the training aspects of her time in Rome. I was surprised at how quickly she just jumped on in, especially given her prior skepticism.
Don't get me wrong. Astrid struggles with this decision. She doesn't want to commit her entire life to remaining a virgin and hunting unicorns. The difference is that while I bought her struggle over the decision to commit to a life of hunting, I didn't buy her lack of real rebellion at going to unicorn camp in the first place and killing lots of animals once she got there, despite her life being endangered several times. I wanted her to be a bit more rebellious, other than sneaking out to make out with cute boys.
Which brings me to Giovanni. He's an American student studying in Rome, who along with his friend, starts double dating Astrid and her cousin, Philippa aka Phil. Giovanni represents all that she can't have if she hunts - love, sex, companionship. She flirts with using him to take her virginity so she can avoid hunting, and also agonizes over accepting her destiny while still truly loving him.
The boys manage to complicate things in meaningful, and also hurtful, ways. It's in the exploration of these relationships that Peterfreund shines. Astrid is a teenager - nervous around boys, overanalyzing their every move, questioning the path to physical intimacy. She is insecure about reading the right signals or how to communicate what she wants. I absolutely loved the time she spent with Giovanni, and her internal thoughts just made me want to hug her and tell her that when she grows up she'll look back on this with a smile. Of course, what dogs Astrid is that she might not grow up with that kind of knowledge. It's very bittersweet.
The action ebbs and flows, and at times I found the narrative a bit confusing and wandering for me, but I still give it a solid four stars. I liked the exploration of teen sexuality (minus the emphasis on virginity) and the mythology built around the unicorns. There were lots of surprises throughout the pages that made for an exciting read, and I recommend this one to those who like their fantasy with just a hint of mocking.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Welcome to Writing Wednesday, my feature where I discuss my works in progress, project ideas, editing struggles, or anything else related to writing. This also serves as a place for general discussion posts.
The return of Writing Wednesday is here! Now that school is done and my writing group is starting up with biweekly meetings, I hope to have more things to discuss related to my writing projects. This probably won't be an every week thing, but I'll revive it from time to time to keep you posted.
This week I want to talk about organization. As some of you may have read last week in my TGIF post on bookshelves, my bookish life has been a bit...cluttered. This includes reading AND writing. Not only were my books shoved willy nilly all over my living room, but so were my writing drafts, critiques, notes and prompt books. It was insanity. This weekend I took advantage of my husband being out of town to pull some old books to sell, reorganize a couple of shelves, and buy a new bookshelf. Though I still didn't get close to solving the problem, I got a lot closer, and moved some of the things I need to easily access to more appropriate locations.
Voila:
This is the one in the worst shape. The top shelf contains an overly stuffed shelf of religious books. The second shelf contains all of our plays (two deep, and you can literally see that shelf bowing under the weight!), the fourth shelf has art supplies and school books, and the last shelf has music and more textbooks. On the floor in front of this shelf are my review copies I don’t plan to keep. (That’s why they’re on the floor – to remind me they are GARBAGE! I’m kidding.) The third shelf is where I did the most work, moving a bunch of mass markets around and adding bloggy TBR books. 
This next shelf got the best of the makeover treatment. (Seriously. I promise you this is an improvement.) I moved all of my logic puzzles to the top (which also holds random trinkets from India and some candles), moved around and got rid of some lit fiction I’ll never read, and put all of my anatomy, food, and language materials on the bottom shelf. None of it is alphabetized or in much of an order, and it’s still overflowing, but it’s definitely an improvement. If you look closely you can see my Harry Potter collection and nerdy Final Fantasy game guides. Also wave to the husband’s small amp on the right. I’m not sure why it’s there. Don’t worry, the massive one is sequestered in the nightmare that is our office.
That last shelf I think is going to be moved over here instead. The white shelf on the left is the new one I bought this weekend and given the layout here I think a taller shelf would look better. The open shelves are our display shelves (remember my fun Disney hat? Top shelf!). You can spy a copy of my favorite meant-for-adults picture book, It’s a Book by Lane Smith. The white shelves will be used for games, writing materials, cookbooks and comic book storage (my new box for this is on the bottom.) Since I’ve already amassed a healthy amount of comic books, I decided to get organized earlier rather than later and bought the storage container, boards and bags to get me off on the right foot. On top is a wedding photo, but it’s too far away to see. Suckers!
This is a closer look at the books that have temporarily been moved to the open shelves. The upper shelf has writing books and the lower shelf has autographed copies and other “keeper” books. These shelves wind up being catch-alls (iPod box, computer headset, puzzles, dog collar, business cards, tape measure, framed photo of the sis and I with a Jubilee! showgirl in Vegas), which I don’t want. I plan to move the puzzles, card deck, writing books and some of the keeper books to the white shelves. I’m getting a little worried about the load bearing capacity of that bottom shelf. 
If you are a #steampunk or into comics drop everything NOW and GET THEM. It was the best series EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER. --via @LiaHabel
1. Small Review. Sometimes I worry this blog is too fangirly over Smalls. I name drop that girl like no one else. Recap post? Check. Signature? Check. 
2. The Unread Reader. Talk about amazingly nice! Missie has over 1300 followers and still manages to leave comments on so many blogs every single day (including mine, yay!). She taught me that not everyone with over 1000 followers will ignore you. Sometimes, they visit your blog. And sometimes, they leave you nice comments. And sometimes, they email you and ask you to co-host events with them. Missie reminds me that having a successful blog is about putting in the time and effort to put up quality content and have meaningful interactions with people. I'm trying to incorporate that into my blogging routine, because I look up to her so darn much!
3. Ruby's Reads. Ruby puts it all out there. She doesn't hold back. Her energy is infectious and her posts make me laugh crazy hard. She inspires me to really go there with some of my content. Say what you mean, mean what you say. She hosts interesting and unique events, she leaves tons of comments, and holds the distinction of being the first blogger to ask little old me to guest post on her blog (which I still haven't done...yet). She reminds me that blogging is about connecting with people, and that you can meet people who truly become your friends while doing so.
1/12 books
0/10 books - Level 2
0/3 books
Surprise Trip Level
2/15 books
Cogged Level
0/30 books
Making a Dint Level
0/6 books
0/12 books
Coupon Clipper Level
0/12 books
1/12 books
Two Sexy Werewolves Level
0/6 books
0/6 books
3/12 books
Series Expert
0/3 series
Level 3
7/100 books
0/14 challenges
