Reviewed by Joan Stradling for TeensReadToo.com

Think unicorns are sweet, magical horse-like creatures? Think again!

Diana Peterfreund introduces us to the darker side of unicorns in her novel RAMPANT. Peterfreund's unicorns are man-eating monsters. They can kill with poison in their horns, rip someone apart with their sharp teeth, and some have breath that can kill (literally).

Astrid Llewelyn has listened to her mother's crazy stories about extinct man-eating unicorns for years. Astrid never believed the stories - until the night her date ended up on the sharp end of a unicorn horn.

Now her mother's stories are all too real, and Astrid is sent to Rome for training as a unicorn hunter. She meets a group of other virgin descendants of Alexander the Great, and together they train to hunt and kill unicorns.

But Astrid doesn't want to be a hunter.

I enjoyed reading RAMPANT. There was some sexual tension and scenes of passion, as well as discussion about sex, but not enough to bother me. I'd recommend this for older readers 14+ because of the content.

I enjoyed the characters and learning about their lives. Astrid is strong, and yet vulnerable enough to make her real. The characters and their lives will run Rampant in my memory for a long time, but in a good way.

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Never have I read such an interesting story about unicorns as Diana Peterfreund's RAMPANT. This book is jam-packed with lore and fighting without taking away from Peterfreund's signature writing style.

Diana's greatest ability is in making each and every character stand out without resorting to cliches. There are easily a dozen characters to keep track of, and yet no real effort is required to do so. Each character has a distinctive voice and his or her own motivations and vulnerabilities, and no one falls into character stereotypes.

RAMPANT begins with a running start, which may be disorienting. However, once within the cloister walls, details are fleshed out, characters introduced and shaped into whole beings, and the multifaceted story emerges. In RAMPANT, old clashes with new, both literally, as modern-day teenagers get dumped within the aging convent's walls, and figuratively: it's not just about killing unicorns, but rather the ethical implications of using ancient techniques in modern times.

While I found myself unable to connect with the characters as well as I did with those in the IVY LEAGUE series, Diana Peterfreund has still written a tale that is a force to be reckoned with. The allure of unicorns (an as-yet-unmined idea) and expert characterization will make RAMPANT an easy winner in the YA fantasy genre.

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I was excited to read this book by Peterfreund. I mean it's about evil, carnivorous unicorns, how can you not be excited? It was a very creative book and pretty engaging.

Astrid is your typical teenage girl, except she has a mother than has raised her on stories about evil, man-eating unicorns. Things are going pretty good for Astrid, that is until her boyfriend gets gored by an evil unicorn while they are out in the woods making out. From there things get kind of weird. Astrid is shipped off to a convent in Rome by her overzealous mother, where supposedly, she is going to learn how to become a unicorn hunter. Apparently Astrid comes from a long line of female unicorn hunters.

The best thing about this book was the creativity. The whole idea of evil rampaging unicorns is a lot of fun and Peterfreund does an excellent job of integrating the existence of unicorns into current history and society. Astrid is a great character that has a dry sense of humor and a pretty good sense of self. The book itself clips along at a good pace and is engaging. At the end of the book you want to find out more about these huntresses.

There was a part mid-way through the book after their trainer left that things slowed down a bit too much. It never got boring, but it didn't match the rest of the pace of the book. Also this book takes place in modern time, which for some reason I was expecting more of a fantasy. It is more of a paranormal or maybe urban fantasy type of book. While Astrid and her cousin were both engaging characters, I didn't find the side characters as engaging as I would have liked. Maybe there were just too many side characters or maybe enough background wasn't provided. Lastly there wasn't as much hunting and fighting as I expected; there was a lot of time spent on the social aspects of being a huntress...mainly keeping your virginity.

This was a good read. It will appeal mostly to a young female audience; but fans of unicorns and huntresses may also find it appealing. The main strength of the story is the creativeness of it and the ease with which the unicorns are brought into the modern day world. The characterization of the side characters could have been more well done and the action scenes more plentiful and better detailed; but all in all it is a decent story. I will be keeping an eye out to see what other books along the fantasy vein Peterfreund comes up with.

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