YA Book Review: Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer

Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer by Maureen McGowan
Silver Dolphin Books
April 2011
My Rating: (3/5)

What Its About:

You know the story of Sleeping Beauty, right? Well, this is the same tale, but a bit twisted. In this fairytale land, vampires exist. In fact, instead of being cursed by an evil fairy the Princess Lucette is cursed by a vampire queen. When she turns 16, as soon as her finger is pricked the entire kingdom will fall into a deep sleep every night, leaving her utterly alone. By day, she will sleep while her kingdom awakens, then the vicious circle will begin again. She will be doomed to this intensely lonely life until she finds and proves she is truly in love. Kind of a difficult feat when the whole of your kingdom is snoring.

When Lucette, who has always wanted to be a vampire slayer (something that is unheard of for girls), finds out about the curse, she feels very discouraged. How is she supposed to find true love? Shes not the most attractive girl around (late bloomer) and she really has no desire to fall in love yet. So she secretly trains to be a vampire slayer. When the curse comes, she wants to be ready. When she inevitably pricks her finger, she doesnt want to be vampire bait, just waiting, unprotected, for her body to be sucked dry of blood. And what about all of the unprotected people of the kingdom who sleep all night without the ability to wake? Its a good thing the Princess Lucette is brave, because she has some horrors ahead of her.

What I Thought:

This is an enjoyable read, satisfying for both the lover of fairy tales and the lover of chilly vampire tales. I thought the vampires were an interesting addition to a favorite story. As far as characters go, Lucette was by far the strongest and most likeable. I loved that she wasnt just some helpless princess waiting for her prince to come rescue her, though there is a prince at some point. And theres even a bit of a love triangle involving a vampire youll have to read it yourself to find out how that works out. 😉

I also thought it was pretty cool that the author wrote the book in the choose your own adventure style you choose what Lucettes future will be. I hadnt read a book like that since I was a kid. 🙂 As far as depth and readability go, this book did lag a bit in some areas, but overall it was a fun, entertaining story.

Detailed Rating Breakdown:
Characters: 8/10
Plot: 9/10
Writing: 7/10
Creativity: 9/10
Cover: 10/10

Overall Rating:
(3/5)

Parents Corner:
Mild Violence
Moderate Cursing
Sexual Content
Drug/Alcohol Abuse

Coming Up:

Book 2 in the Goblin Wars series Yes!

Book source: Digital PDF borrowed from NetGalley and returned after 90 days. Amazon links are my affiliate links.

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