Review: A Howling good time!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
I'm an old 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' fan from when Daughter #1 was a young adult, so whenever I come across a book that's got many of the same elements, I do this little happy dance before passing the book along to Daughter #2 and #3.[*Yes ... I'm talking censorship.  I censor what I allow my YA kids to read.*]Alex Finch: Monster Hunter is a fast read that will suck you right into the storyline of a Junior in high school who finds herself smack dab into a strange little Paranormalville.  In this installment of the story (I do hope there will be another?), Alex gets attacked <spoiler>by a werewolf who turns out to be a relative of the hottest guy at school</spoiler>.  Thus starts a death defying race to figure out the town's sordid secrets, who is a paranormal, and which can be trusted versus which ones are homicidal.Unlike many (unfortunate) stories these days where supernatural creatures are romanticized, these monsters <i>are</i> monsters, even when the monster is one of the good guys in their supernatural form.  These paranormal creatures share the Jekyl/Hyde lack of control of the origin-stories of these paranormal creatures, and even the good paranormal creatures do <i>not</i> sparkle!Another nice element is that while Alex is wary of involving her parents in her troubles, it turns out her parents (especially her father) are really cool (though she still gets grounded).  It's nice to see a book where the kid realizes they can go to their parents for help (and it's believable) and the parent actually <i>does</i> help without sloughing off their concerns.  And there are other 'stereotypes' that turn out not to be so stereotypical after all.I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.  The book has been passed down to Daughter #2, and when she is done, Daughter #3 is champing at the full moon to read it.  I would feel comfortable allowing ANY young adult (age 13-17) to read this book.  While there are violent animal attacks, there is little gore and the horror element, while present, is not overstated.I received this book for free in exchange for a fair review.<b>A Howling Good 5-Stars</b>