Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst
Release Date: September 13, 2011
Simon & Schuster: Margaret K. McElderry
ISBN13: 9781442423732
4/5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.
Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees.
The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?
The best way I could think of to describe Drink, Slay, Love is satire for the vampire genre. Oh, and hilarious.
Seriously, this is one of the funniest books I've read. You can't help but laugh while reading this.
Sarah Beth Durst writes Pearl with wit and cleverness, and Pearl completely carries the book. The perfect heroine was created here, one who isn't completely driven by teen angst and hormones. Because Pearl is just a typical, blood sucking, human drinking vampire... who just happens to have been stabbed by a unicorn. The idea is completely ridiculous, but SOMEHOW Durst makes it work really, absolutely, convincingly well.
The vampires in Drink, Slay, Love are actually even kind of creepy. I know that I said this book is funny, but the vampiric lifestyle is actually vaguely disturbing as Pearl describes the life she lives, and particularly so when she begins to change and doesn't feel that she fits in any longer. It's so easy to relate to the story told through Pearl's voice that what once was harmless (drinking the blood from a teenage boy) gradually becomes creepier as Pearl realizes exactly how it affects said boy.
To be honest, I did still see some of the more obvious twists coming; and they didn't entirely make sense either. I thought the unicorn bit was clever and cute at first, but as more about it was revealed and the story begin to take on a more serious tone I found it even harder to take the unicorn's story as serious as I felt the book wanted me to take it.
And for what it's worth, I so wish I had an epilogue to this ending to find out exactly what happens a few months (or years) later down the road... just to see EXACTLY how things turned out.
But overall, I definitely enjoyed this and would easily recommend this to just about everyone. Especially those who are looking for something fun and fresh from the popular vampire genre!
e-copy provided from the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab; thank you!
An enchanting story of two teenage girls coerced into making a deal with Hades. It includes elements of the Hades/Persephone myth, along with other small details of Greek mythology. But what makes this book is the humour that goes along with it. It is FABULOUS. Full of snark and hilarious outcomes for these two girls, who are both as stubborn as can be; similar to Pearl in Drink, Slay, Love. 
