Wow. Holy expletives, Batman. Love the voice in this one. It was a wild ride from start to finish. So perfectly irreverent and plenty of feels. Highly recommend it.

The world is unique and the characters are fully-fleshed. The character's actions felt true to the genre. Every now and then, there was the maybe-trying-too-hard factor--few extra words to push the idea over the top--but it didn't detract from the story. Research-wise, Glock's don't have safeties, so maybe correct that before the official publication. Otherwise, this is an awesome read so the title is incredibly fitting and I will recommend the f*ck out of it.

I received my ARC from Netgalley. In return, I am offering an honest review.

How else can I describe "The Awesome"? It is what the title indicates: AWESOME! "The Awesome" is the novel of Eva Darrows.

In this novel, we follow 17 year old Maggie Cunningham as she 1. attempts to lose her virginity so she can hunt vampires and 2. tries to cope with her mom's undead boyfriend. Maggie is from a line of monster hunters, and with her father killed before she was born, she learned her skills from the best -- her mother Janice. Janice and Maggie have a great mother-daughter relationship that is really open, snarky, and lends itself to a ton of laughs.

The plot kicks off when Maggie stresses about trying to lose her virginity. Vampires in this world go into a crazy fit when they sense a virgin, so hunters are required to have had flesh-to-flesh sex before they can hunt vampires. As Maggie puts her dilemma, "As vamps are stronger and faster than humans, roid-raging them up for virgin blood doesn't exactly tip the odds in the hunter's favor, which meant until I did the nasty with a dong of my choosing, I was a liability." By the way, this book is chalk full of naughty language, but it really adds to the flavor of the book!

In her quest for "The Sex," as Maggie puts it, she experiences a vampire attack and ends up potentially in danger and unable to tell her mother about it. Throw in her mother's vampire boyfriend, which goes against every tenant Maggie was taught by the same women, a friendly zombie, and a new boyfriend of her own -- Maggie has a ton on her plate.

This novel is honest, fun, and hilarious. While I wouldn't recommend this to teens under 16, due to sexual situations and the language, this is a thrilling and fast paced novel that is sure to make you giggle at Maggie's snark and sense of humor. One last example, and one of my favorites, "Parties and The Sex went hand in hand almost as closely as watching Xena reruns and questioning my sexuality."

This is a must purchase for any teen section!

The Awesome by Eva Darrows is a fun little package – urban fantasy at its riotous LMAO best. The name itself should give you a clue that this is a book that doesn't take itself seriously. A name that screams teenage indifference, self-absorbed cocky attitudes. The Awesome features "I am cool. Yes I know it. I am THE Awesome" Maggie Cunningham, a precocious seventeen-year protagonist who represents the geeky, know-it-all, self-obsessed teenagers, who by the way is also an apprentice to her mother – an acclaimed monster hunter herself. The twist in the story is..that she has to ‘get laid’ to become a federally registered full-fledged hunter. The Awesome thus splays open the teenager version of the pandora's box: Full of all the dating-problems, drunken-sex parties and sugary first-kisses ( and all post-kiss insecurities and the emotional rollercoaster rides that follows) along with some hairy jeepers-creepers creating problems in thier daily life. Read fanged monsters as is evident on that beee-a-uutiful cover.

So Maggie is a home-schooled, mostly friendless (discounting her best friend Juliet) utterly intense teenager whose idea of fun on a Friday night is to get her freak on – read put on battle gear consisting of sharpened stakes, holy-water balloons stuffed into her bosom and knives strapped to the boots – and go hunting supernatural terrors who bump up in night time Massachusetts. Along with her mother, Janice (“Part rock-star, part Ninja, secret love-child of Jet Li and Lady Gaga – with a penchant to experiment her hair color that goes from pink, purple to sometimes green and blue and usually drove a pick-up truck or white kidnapper vans!)

Now Maggie is pretty sincere in following up on her mother’s footsteps and is trying hard to become a licensed and independent monster hunter -ie to find her groove in this world where vampires, ghouls, the walking dead and other pointy-horn thingies roam the night. In fact, the opening chapter of the book sets up the mood for the rest of the story – a backstory of her first act of monster-hunting that is a jet-setting laugh-riot. Where slapstick humour mixes with furious action and is narrated by a self-absorbed narcissistic snarky seventeen-year self. she is full of herself. the cocky attitude that comes in at that age. Coz well, she is awesome, you know. And with that you pretty well guess how the rest of the book is going.

So Maggie reluctantly takes up her mom’s well-meaning advice (“If you're not up for boys, you're more than welcome to find yourself a nice girl. I'm hip.. I'm happening. I am totally down with you crazy kids exploring your sexuality.") and tries to hitch up with Ian - a sweet naive boy her best friend Juliet introduces her to at this party. Things don't go according to plan - mainly because Ian is on a rebound-after-being-ditched-by-girlfriend and is stone-drunk. But Ian - being the nice boy that he is - persists because, hey Maggie is THE awesome and a very cool girl to hang out with.

And while this domestic drama is unfolding in her life, Maggie - still being a virgin - attracts the bloodlust of a young vampire - whom her trigger-happy foul-mouthed mother of a monster-hunter happily dispatches to kingdom come by blowing her head into an ectoplasmic mound of slimey stuff. And the victim being the single progeny of some high-ranking vampire prince, Maggie and her mom are stuck between a rock and hard place. or as hard a place can be, when confronted by hordes of bloodsucking Vampires and Ghouls. What follows is how Maggie extricates themselves from this bother of a spot - in her own ingenious ways. Thus earning her stripes to be a first-class Monster-Hunter. and yes, get laid of course.

It's a completely hilarious set-up - and Eva's writing is top-notch. We are reminded a bit of Chuck Wendig's Miriam Black in Maggie's profanity-laced outbursts at life's unfairness. In a good way. Flighty without taking any prisoners, Eva drills us onwards in this non-stop comic-action caper - where things go from bad to worse in a second's notice. Massachussets at night is a dangerous place - and Eva's prose brings the dangers alive. in a irreverent completely slapstick manner and she get's the narrator's voice pat-down. a surly teenager sulking through her date-disasters and then trying to cope with problems larger than her missing tampons - like a Hulk-strong Undead girl - ressurected from death and forced to shack up with Maggie and Janice, a Russian mobster-chick, a slick vampire prince who does pilates on the ground - Not to mention boyfriend issues and Mother-issues. It's a complicated life for a teenager. Her tumultuous deeply loving relationship and bonding with her mom is absolutely delightful stuff.( "Other people expressed affection with warm sentiments and kisses. I used death threats and demeaning language. Don't judge.")

So in parting, if you haven't experienced Maggie Cunningham yet, then you should. The Awesome is a nonstop fun express - poking fun at everything including itself. A protagonist that I look forward to meeting again soon.

I think The Awesome will be one of those books with rabid fans! The voice is very unique, as is the mother-daughter relationship. The love story was sweet without being trite. I can definitely see more books set in this world with these characters. I would recommend this to fans of Buffy and our patrons who like their paranormal fiction to be humorous as well as suspenseful.

Wow. Cue the hair metal soundtrack and get your monster hunting gear ready! The Awesome is a fast-paced, profanity-laced, funny, b-movie horror book that you'll finish in one sitting. Maggie and her mother are hunters. They hhunt the baddies that go bump in the night. Problem is, Mags needs to lose the big V to upgrade to full-fledged vampire hunter, since the vamps go buck wild for virgin blood. She meets the boy...thats the easy part. Going all the way. Well...not so much. A vamp gets killed, other vamps get mad, revenge is set in motion, and Maggie is in the middle of it all. Great mother daughter dnamics, where it should scream, "DYSFUNCTIONAL" but their relationship is healthier and more honest than most. Here's the nod to the breakout teen novel of 2015!

Early raves and reports on this one made me pick this up from Netgalley the moment it was offered. What I thought I was getting was another YA paranormal piece, but what I got what a really fun mix of genres that is best described as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls having a weird kid that turns out to be Superbad.

Our heroine is Maggie, a teenage demon hunter in training. A little foul-mouthed, but who would be surprised given that her mother is a sailor in comparison. Maggie's got some work to do, but part of the problem she's running into in her training is that vampires are really into virgin blood, and given that Maggie is still a virgin, well... she needs to take care of that. And, of course, balance out her training and a situation that she's inadvertently gotten herself into along the way.

I used the cultural comparisons for a reason. It's Gilmore-esque because it's a really great, perhaps a little unhealthy mother-daughter relationship. You can tell they care about each other, though, and see themselves as more of a team than anything else. Given the fact that there's literal vampire hunting and demons and such, the Buffy comparison is apt, but so too is the quickfire dialogue and the use of these supernatural ideas to be a parallel to growing up. I don't know if I've read a paranormal piece that's done it better, to be honest. And then, of course, the fact that this is, in many ways, a bizarro sex comedy in all its forms. Drunken debauchery, awkwardness, the whole nine yards.

Really, it's just a lot of fun. Plenty of openings for this to be a series, and the heroes are fun with the villains appropriately nasty and villainous. It's a quick paced read, very few flaws, and probably closer to a 4.5 when it's all said and done. Check this one out.