Sweet Venom

Gr 7 Up—Like Childs's Oh. My. Gods (Dutton, 2008), Sweet Venom takes Greek mythology into the modern day, this time focusing on three teenage descendants of Medusa tasked with protecting humankind from an array of legendary monsters. The story is told in alternating chapters by the 16-year-old girls who soon discover that they are triplets—separated at birth for their own safety—each with the same ability to sense the creatures that are invisible to everyone else and return them to their own realm with a bite from her drop-down-when-needed fangs. First-person narratives reveal each character's unique personality: tough, battle-ready Gretchen, a loner who has been fighting minotaurs and more for several years; Grace, new to San Francisco, a computer geek with a tendency to let people push her around; and Greer, a pretty and popular queen bee with a high-powered future already planned out. It's like mixing apples with oranges and the girls have as much trouble getting along as they do accepting their monster-mashing legacy. Meanwhile, the beastie attacks are on the rise—as is the level of danger—and rumors of a mythological conspiracy abound. The triplets finally come together as a fighting unit by the book's climax, which ends on a cliff-hanger note that suggests a sequel. Fast-paced and fun, filled with snarky dialogue as well as taut battle action, this novel will appeal to mythology devotees as well as fans of light paranormal fiction.—Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal