Rampant (Diana Peterfreund)

Rampant
Diana Peterfreund
Harper
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Every girl dreams of meeting a unicorn... except Astrid. She grew up listening to her mother Lilith's tales of the beasts - not the sparkly pastel-colored denizens of children's tales, but bloodthirsty, carnivorous monsters that rampaged across the ancient world. Only the unicorn hunters, virgin females of gifted bloodlines with supernatural gifts and inborn immunity to the beasts' venomous horns, could bring them down - and they did, running them to extinction, with Astrid's own ancestor Clothilde dealing the final death blow. Now a high school sophomore, she struggles to overcome a social life hampered by association with Lilith and her crackpot theories. They have to be crackpot; after all, everyone knows unicorns don't exist.
One night, sneaking out with her boyfriend Brandt (who just might take Astrid to the prom if she lets his hands get far enough under her clothes), she has a too-close encounter with a nonexistent unicorn. Brandt barely survives, and Astrid's world is changed forever. Apparently, unicorns aren't extinct after all, and they're making their presence known through increasingly bold attacks on wildlife, pets, and even humans. Those few who still know the old lore scramble to assemble a team of hunters descended from the old bloodlines. Astrid finds herself shipped off to Rome to train with them. Suddenly, all of her mother's terrible stories are coming true... but none of them can prepare her for the true life of a unicorn hunter, a life full of blood, violence, secrets - and sacrifices.

REVIEW: Killer unicorns? Any book with that premise is worth a look. Peterfreund based her unicorns on worldwide legends, many of which depict a far fiercer, less cuddleworthy creature than modern storybooks show us. Like faeries, unicorns have been softened through the ages as belief in them, and in the forces embodied by them, waned. The animals represented here blend old myths with a touch of cryptozoology, creating original fantasy creatures (or beings, perhaps, as Astrid learns that there's more to the unicorn mind than many hunters believe.) As the main characters struggle to understand the re-emerging unicorn population, some treat them as a wonderful scientific opportunity while some greet them with all the warmth of a resurgence in smallpox or black plague. The story starts fairly quickly, but it bogs down several times with sidetracks into rivalries between the hunters and other distractions. In particular, the link between the hunters and their virginity is discussed in exhaustive detail. Some plot twists are obvious (hands up, those who believe that a pharmaceutical company sponsoring a unicorn hunting institute doesn't have an ulterior motive), but others play out more convincingly. It took me several chapters to decide whether or not I liked Astrid enough to follow her through the entire book, though she was at least preferable to some of the other girls she meets in Rome. By the midpoint, the story had picked up decently, and it led to a nicely cataclysmic conclusion... which, as is typical these days, mostly serves to set up a sequel (Ascendant.)
Overall, while some of the characters grew irksome and the plot occasionally drug, Rampant promises some fresh perspectives on unicorn lore, and - for the most part - delivers on them.