Review: Sleeping Beauty Vampire Slayer by. Maureen McGowan

Title: Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer
Author: Maureen McGowan
Publication Date: April 1, 2011
Pages: 320 
Genre: Paranormal
Rating:  

Synopsis from Goodreads: In this thrilling story full of adventure and romance, Sleeping Beauty is more than just a lonely princess waiting for her prince—she's a brave, tenacious girl who never backs down from a challenge. With vampire-slaying talents that she practices in secret, Sleeping Beauty puts her courage to the test in the dark of night, fighting evil as she searches for a way to break the spell that has cut her off from her family. In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Sleeping Beauty and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read! Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer is an entirely new type of fairy tale–one that will keep today's kids guessing and offer them hours of magical fun.

Review: Reading the original tale of sleeping beauty was not as much fun as reading Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer. This book definitely introduces some cool and definitely intriguing concepts to the story of Sleeping Beauty, completely transforming the traditional fairy tale into Maureen's own creation of kick-butt heroines and romance! 

The book starts off with Lucette (sleeping beauty) being cursed by the Vampire Queen at birth. The curse states that if Lucette ever pricks her finger, she will never be able to wake up while the sun is up and every other person in her village will not be awake during the night, so she will be alone in the dark all of her life. But the fairy queen states that the curse can be lifted if after her 16th birthday, Lucette finds her true love. I thought this sounded like a very interesting plot. Especially since the village where they live has so many vampires, I knew that aspect was going to come into play. There were a lot of interesting ideas that were introduced throughout the book. And the interesting thing about this books is that Maureen has written it in a "pick your plot" kind of format. Meaning for most of the big decisions than Lucette has to make in the books, you get to choose which route she takes. I thought this was pretty interesting, but I also felt that I couldn't get to know Lucette better as a character because of it. I was making the decisions which was fun since the plot plays out how I want it to, but at the same time, not how the characters intended, so that part was a little iffy on my part, but since I went back and read the routes that I didn't originally pick, it was still fun to read about.

The characters to me were, pretty much, unmemorable. First lets begin with Lucette's parents (which I believe have somewhat of a verbally abusive relationship). I understand that there were trying to protect their child, but at times I felt that they were more of depriving and trying to control Lucette than "protecting her". And Lucette herself seemed to be sort of idle. Sure she wasn't the damsel in distressed type, but I also felt that she didn't think much for herself in the beginning of the book, good thing she really bucked up and become a more dominant main character in the rest of the books. Now the male characters in my opinion left a lot to be desired. They both start to play more prominent roles in the end of the book and I was glad that the character Alex was re-introduced. I really enjoyed his character at times, and thought he had a quick wit to him that brightened up the book and the fact that he was a vampire didn't hurt either. Tristan was also reintroduced in the beginning of the book and he fell a little flat to me. But of course, in order to break her curse, Lucette was going to have to make a choice between them.

All in all, I thought that this was an interesting book to read, mainly for the fact that it was sort of like reading 2 books in one. Of course the end result is going to be the same, its fun to read through all of the different ways the possibly get there. The plot idea was very interesting in this book, and though the characters were not my favorite parts of this book, the plot and the fact that this was a "pick your own adventure" book make up for it.


Recommendations: If you are in need for a new kind of book, I definitely recommend this one.
Overall: 3/5 Stars

Characters: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Entertainment: 3/5
Ending: 3/5
Writing Style: 2/5
Cover: 4/5