After reading White Oleander, this book was actually a great way to surface. It was a romp, but not so rompy as to be insulting. Just fun language, interesting characters, and a lot of potential for development, which makes me think that there will be more books from this writing team. (This book was written by a mother-daughter duo who combined their names to create a pen name.)

I was a bit disappointed that they made the bad guy into an intersexed person, and also that they used the incredibly insulting term “hermaphrodite,” which, like, seriously, guys. Five seconds of research would have uncovered the correct term to use, and you should have used it. But I tried to overlook that in the interest of the rest of the story, which was pretty good.

The writing was very fresh and clean, with  little fooling around trying to look fancy, but the characters were anything but simple, and I liked that. I got the sense that there was a lot more depth there, and a lot of places where the characters could (and will) go. And I liked the premise of the book, and the way the story unfolded. I would definitely recommend this book, and I am looking forward to seeing more from these ladies. Hopefully backed by some, ahem, more culturally sensitive research.

Demographics:

Monkeewrench, by P.J. Tracy. Published 2003, 373 pages. Fiction.