Realms of an Open Mind

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

The cover. The synopsis. The raving reviews. All three came together and made Sweet Venom a book I had to read... and after reading...

I'm sorry, I just don't understand all the hype surrounding this book. I could barely get myself to finish it. A little after the halfway mark, I found myself skimming rather than immersing myself in the story. Not a good sign. But rather than go on an angry rant, let me bullet point it for you.

• The writing felt stilted. What should have been witty came across as weird, and what should have been serious or potentially romantic came across as cheesy. Everything about it felt forced.

• I get talking to yourself, but the consistency with which these characters speak, out loud, to themselves makes me wonder if there isn't something seriously wrong with them.

• The so-called romance was... anything but. The whole insta-love/insta-crush thing is in overkill mode. A few things bugged me, but nothing as much as the fact that Grace was willing to lie about herself in order to win the affections of Milo. That, and the guys acted completely unlike any guy in the history of men. Who immediately holds their friend's little sister's hand? What guy keeps going after a girl who has made it absolutely clear that she's not interested?

Not any guy I've ever heard of. Just another aspect of this book that felt forced.

• I love Greek mythology, but no one in their right mind believes it truly exists. So when Grace walks up to Greer (a sister she has never met) and tells her, straight up, that she's a descendent of Medusa, what do you think the response is going to be? That's right. A door slammed in the face. And Grace has the nerve to act surprised. Common sense is seriously lacking.

• I couldn't stand Grace's character. It's one thing to have insecurities, but she takes it to a whole new level. The word "freak" got pretty redundant, and the fact that she constantly used it to describe herself (or how she thought others might describe her) was beyond annoying. 

I can appreciate how the author was trying to take a well-known Greek myth and make it her own. The concept was interesting, I just can't get on board with the way it was executed. 

I saw a lot of great reviews for this book, but, for me, it left a lot to be desired. 

1.5/5 Stars.

Cheers!