Girls That Growl
Mari Mancusi
Berkley, Oct 2007
ISBN: 9780425217160

Goth girl Rayne McDonald has the worst of both worlds as she is a vampire slayer who recently became a vampire. Rayne has enough to deal with her Sunny sister, her mom, and their respective boyfriends Magnus and David. Finally adding to her already raging hormonal confusion is her dark nocturnal vampire boyfriend Jareth who has become a Beach Boy surfer.

However, now Rayne's slayer handler orders her to perform her most dangerous complex mission to date. She must go undercover as a cheerleader in order to investigate the disappearance of two football players that Rayne thought should have been sacked. Apparently the only suspects are the cheerleaders, whom she must interrogate; but to the squad members one must letter in sports to be a cheerleader. Using what a teen does best: extortion; she gets on the team, but realizes her new teammates are weirder than vampires riding the surf in sunlight without proper lotion.

As with BOYS THAT BITE and STAKE THAT!, GIRLS THAT GROWL is an amusing teenage vampire tale starring a fascinating high school student who believes her current assignment is too dangerous as no outsider wants to join the in cheerleader squad. The story line is fast-paced, but focuses on the rain in Rayne's life as she has sibling issues, mommy troubles (even lost her bedroom to mom's latest boy toy), her own boyfriend tsuris, but worst is dealing with the squad. Young adults will enjoy growling along side of this vampire slayer who has no time left for homework.

Harriet Klausner