Book Review: Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer by Maureen McGowan

Title: Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer
Author: Maureen McGowan
Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books
Release Date: 04/01/2011
ISBN: 1607102560







Remember those old "Pick Your Path" books from the 90s & before? Those were awesome, right? This book manages to bring back some of that old retro feel in a story that's following the trend of "classic story with supernatural beasties".

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.

I'll admit, the story isn't as inspired as some of the other stuff out there but then, a huge chunk of the appeal is being able to make your own choices & see what happens. I'll admit, I kind of cheated with this, searching to see which ending I liked the most. (Hey- I'm keeping a tradition alive! I did this with the older books too!) If you're curious about the other paths, there's a list in the back where you can go through all of the various different story paths. Unfortunately no matter what you choose, you always get the same ending (according to the answer key). That's a little bit disappointing since part of the fun of the older books was being able to get drastically different endings or even bad ones.

Even so, Lucette makes for a perky little heroine & this is a decent book for the most part. It's not going to take the place of Melissa Marr or Seth Grahame-Smith, but then it really doesn't try to. It's sure to gain a pretty good audience & I can see a friend of mine really getting into the idea of being able to interact with the book more than some of the other series she's got.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)