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Rampant Diana Peterfreund Books

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Rampant Diana Peterfreund Books

I admit - I was hesitant at first about reading Rampant. I mean, killer unicorns? And my boyfriend, who's really nice about the fact that I read young adult, would not stop making fun of me for reading a book about unicorns, so that didn't help. I picked it up, read the first chapter, and then got another book in the mail and read that first.

But really, once I grasped the fact that this book is NOT about My Little Pony-esque unicorns, I really got into it. There's a lot of really neat history thrown into Rampant, which is something that always excites me in a book. The action scenes are super tense because I could never figure out the outcome ahead of time, which was awesome.

I love Diana Peterfreund's writing style. Astrid's narration is so clear and easy to follow, and the only points I ever got confused on were during the scenes that talked about secondary characters that were hardly mentioned. The action scenes are very well done and detailed so that I was able to follow the action without getting lost. I find that normally in action scenes in a book, I kind of skip words and get confused (much like really shaky action scenes in a movie) but in Rampant, it was very easy for me to follow along.

The storyline really reminded me of Buffy, seventh season. A bunch of girls who didn't really know who they were are called together to fight evil unicorns? Yeah, definitely reminds me of Buffy. Without the vampires. But in a good way! I love Buffy :)

There was a large variety of characters, which could get a little confusing at times because some characters weren't mentioned very often so I forgot who they were, but the majority of the characters were really unique with very different backgrounds from each other. Astrid was a very normal and likable character. She just wanted to fit in and have a boyfriend, but her crazy mother uprooted her whole life and sent her to a convent in Rome. Phil, Astrid's cousin, bugged me a whole lot, until the last half of the book when she became more tolerable, but I really disliked Astrid's mother all throughout the book, which I think was probably the point. I really liked Cory. She was probably my favourite character, besides Astrid.

I really liked Astrid and Giovanni's relationship while I was reading the book. Sure, it wasn't exactly realistic - girl meets a guy in Rome, they instantly hit it off, both happen to be in Rome for a while, etc. - kind of an ideal like situation, but as the book goes on, their relationship gets really complicated and it makes more sense. Giovanni was an interesting character, but once I finished the book, he wasn't incredibly memorable.

There were are one or two scenes of animal-ish abuse in this book that kind of made me sad. I fully realize that it never really happened and that unicorns don't really exist, but it still hurt to read, so skip over those bits if things like that upset you.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Rampant. It took me a little while to get into it because of my whole "...unicorns, really?" attitude, but it was really worth it. It definitely took me on a crazy ride full of action and romance and history and betrayal, and I'm really excited to read the second book, Ascendant, which came out a few weeks ago.


Tags : Amazon.com: Rampant (9780061490002): Diana Peterfreund: Books,Diana Peterfreund,Rampant,HarperTeen,0061490008,mon0000000859,Fantasy - General,Social Themes - Dating & Sex,Social Themes - Friendship,Hunting;Fiction.,Supernatural;Fiction.,Unicorns;Fiction.,Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Fiction,Girls & Women,Hunting,Legends, Myths, & Fables - General,Social Issues - Friendship,Supernatural,Unicorns,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Fantasy General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes Dating & Sex,Young Adult Fiction Girls & Women,Young Adult Fiction Legends, Myths, Fables General,Young Adult Fiction Social Themes Friendship

Rampant Diana Peterfreund Books Reviews

I originally picked this up for my daughter, but gave it a try for its unusual take on a popular mythology.

Rampant is a version of the mythology I wasn't even remotely familiar with, but (and this is pretty much my litmus test for all my current reads) it sounded wicked cool. 16 year old Astrid Llewellyn is, according to her mother, descended from a line of famous unicorn hunters virgin girls with rad fighting skills and a sacred duty. Astrid's mother is, understandably, a mite eccentric and even Astrid thinks it's all a lot of hooey. But a chance encounter while necking in the woods with a boy results in Astrid's reluctant enlightenment and off she goes to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at a converted cloister with other girls. As if unicorns weren't weird enough, there's the "Remedy," some sort of panacea tied to the unicorns and researched by the team's benefactor a shady pharmaceutical company. There's also a very handsome boy whom Astrid thinks is the perfect candidate to rid her of that pesky, unicorn-hunter requisite and unlock her freedom from her mother's crazy plans for Llewellyn glory.

Peterfreund's mythology is meticulously researched, and her Roman backdrop is believable in a "I've seen that on TV" sort of way. The characters are colorful enough as individuals, but rarely fleshed out beyond their service of creating dialog. It's a well written story with an interesting, mythological twist and a believable, reluctant heroine. But I wasn't impressed with it for those reasons.

I am the mother of a 12-year-old girl. Finding ways to open a frank dialog about sex is nearly impossible. As every woman either knows or remembers, the subject of sex at this age is an embarrassing glob of ick and NO WAY does any 12-year-old girl want to hear the words "sex" and "feelings" and "your" come out of her mother's mouth in the same sentence. Ew. Gross. La la la la, I can't HEAR you! By the time it's not an embarrassing glob of ick, you've missed your window as a parent if you haven't already made an impression on your kid about your opinions on the matter.

Combined with this Kobayashi Maru of parenting is the constant onslaught of simultaneously prudish and pornographic signals from media and marketing at large. What's a modern, liberal mother in favor of healthy, adult sexual relationships to do? Because it isn't enough to just talk about this stuff, even though that's the best place to start. At a certain point, your kid's eyes just glaze over.

Solution? Find positive examples that back up my own messages in age appropriate, engaging and unpreachy ways. No mean feat, lemme tell you! Modern culture is not interested in teaching girls how to realistically recognize and field sexual advances, be they unwelcome or (and in my opinion, more importantly) welcome. Yet this book manages to do just that. Astrid has three sexually charged (but not consummated) encounters, all marked by decidedly different feelings on her part. Each instance illustrated what I thought were highly realistic scenarios, due largely to Astrid's internal dialog as she is living the experience. Without trying to capture all the possible variations of such encounters (which would be impossible, anyway), Peterfreund gives very comprehensive examples of the different things a 16-year-old girl says to herself when she finds a boy's hands inside her shirt. Things like, "Just get this over with," and "God, that feels good," and "Please don't go any further because I'm not sure what to do if you try."

It can be said that the message of the book is pro-virginity because it has to be only virgins can hunt unicorns. In that respect, realism goes right out the window. But highlighting the idea that sex is life changing without being inherently evil isn't a bad thing, especially in a culture and time where girls are still taught that sexy equals slutty and for god's sake don't talk about it because it's dirty bad wrong!

Ultimately, the balance of the positive message (realistic depictions of beginning sexual situations) with the age appropriate, unpreachy message (fantasy story about unicorns) is an ideal back door to the kinds of conversations adolescent girls usually run from. Even if it wasn't an interesting, fun adventure story, that alone would get it a permanent spot on my bookshelf.
I admit - I was hesitant at first about reading Rampant. I mean, killer unicorns? And my boyfriend, who's really nice about the fact that I read young adult, would not stop making fun of me for reading a book about unicorns, so that didn't help. I picked it up, read the first chapter, and then got another book in the mail and read that first.

But really, once I grasped the fact that this book is NOT about My Little Pony-esque unicorns, I really got into it. There's a lot of really neat history thrown into Rampant, which is something that always excites me in a book. The action scenes are super tense because I could never figure out the outcome ahead of time, which was awesome.

I love Diana Peterfreund's writing style. Astrid's narration is so clear and easy to follow, and the only points I ever got confused on were during the scenes that talked about secondary characters that were hardly mentioned. The action scenes are very well done and detailed so that I was able to follow the action without getting lost. I find that normally in action scenes in a book, I kind of skip words and get confused (much like really shaky action scenes in a movie) but in Rampant, it was very easy for me to follow along.

The storyline really reminded me of Buffy, seventh season. A bunch of girls who didn't really know who they were are called together to fight evil unicorns? Yeah, definitely reminds me of Buffy. Without the vampires. But in a good way! I love Buffy )

There was a large variety of characters, which could get a little confusing at times because some characters weren't mentioned very often so I forgot who they were, but the majority of the characters were really unique with very different backgrounds from each other. Astrid was a very normal and likable character. She just wanted to fit in and have a boyfriend, but her crazy mother uprooted her whole life and sent her to a convent in Rome. Phil, Astrid's cousin, bugged me a whole lot, until the last half of the book when she became more tolerable, but I really disliked Astrid's mother all throughout the book, which I think was probably the point. I really liked Cory. She was probably my favourite character, besides Astrid.

I really liked Astrid and Giovanni's relationship while I was reading the book. Sure, it wasn't exactly realistic - girl meets a guy in Rome, they instantly hit it off, both happen to be in Rome for a while, etc. - kind of an ideal like situation, but as the book goes on, their relationship gets really complicated and it makes more sense. Giovanni was an interesting character, but once I finished the book, he wasn't incredibly memorable.

There were are one or two scenes of animal-ish abuse in this book that kind of made me sad. I fully realize that it never really happened and that unicorns don't really exist, but it still hurt to read, so skip over those bits if things like that upset you.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Rampant. It took me a little while to get into it because of my whole "...unicorns, really?" attitude, but it was really worth it. It definitely took me on a crazy ride full of action and romance and history and betrayal, and I'm really excited to read the second book, Ascendant, which came out a few weeks ago.