Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

[description from amazon]

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns . . .

Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student . . . an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

Review:

Although I am a firm supporter of Team Zombie, I wanted to read this because, well, unicorns that murder people sound a lot better than unicorns that prance around in meadows with Care Bears. Thankfully these unicorns were tolerable (I will never admit to liking any type of unicorn, ever) and I enjoyed reading about their murderous activities. (That is admitting I like reading about their behavior, not them.)

I enjoyed most of Rampant, but one thing that kept me from loving it was how slow it is. After Astrid arrives in Italy, there is not a lot of action, which I did not expect since this book is all about unicorns who are attacking people. There were sections that were quite exciting, sure, but for a while it was nothing information about unicorns and hunting, and also a lot of build up until the end. This lack of lots of activity was beneficial as it allowed the characters to be more developed, but I often found myself craving some major fighting action. At the same time, however, I liked the history that was described because I am a fan of history; I just wish it was written in the story in a way that didn't slow things down.

The characters, as I mentioned earlier, were quite well developed. I sometimes wanted to slap Astrid for being so annoying or stupid, but she is entertaining narrator and it was nice to read about how she felt about being a unicorn hunter, since she wasn't all that fond of the idea. The remaining cast of characters, all 20 of them (maybe that's an exaggeration, but there was a lot), were all well developed too- even Bonegrinder, the unicorn who is sweet, in a way, but also who would bite your fingers off if given the chance.

Rampant is a book so good that it will appeal to even the most fervent zombie fans.

8/10

Rampant will be released on August 25- this Tuesday!

Links: Diana's website/blog/twitter/the Rampant trailer thing

HarperTeen/Hardcover/$17.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/IndieBound