Summer Shorts is a weekly feature on Dead Book Darling, reviewing great short stories every Saturday through July-August 2010. I’ve been reading quite a few fabulous anthologies lately, and I want to share the love!
The Exterminator’s Daughter
by Meg Cabot
Meg Cabot / Goodreads / Librarything
Rating: 4 stars
Thoughts: I’ll admit it – I used to think Cabot was a writer for 12-year-old girls with learning disabilities. Harsh, I know. But hey, I come to you reformed!
The Exterminator’s Daughter was fun, fun, fun! The 50-page story kicks off when a stupid-but-sweet teenage girl is seduced by a rather evil vampire. Her BFF Mary (a.k.a. the Exterminator’s Daughter) just so happens to be a kick-ass vamp killer. Helping her swoop in to save the day is the awesome-and-totally normal Adam, and, oh yeah, they get to go to prom.
It is super funny, with a touch of rather adorable romance. But Cabot took the story one step further, writing some pretty well-rounded characters. Mary isn’t just charging to the rescue for the hell of it: she has suffered a pretty devastating personal loss and is on a pretty un-funny quest for revenge. It’s all rather tragic, but it made me connect with Mary about so much more than I would think possible in so few pages!
Bottom line? Cabot is certainly on my YA radar now – anyone who can leave me smiling and wishing for a sequel deserves to be read ASAP!
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I’ve still only ever read one Cabot book (Mediator #1), and I didn’t like it. However, I’ve been seeing great reviews for her other stuff recently.. obviously I need to try more!
@Jenny – I was a serious sceptic and still managed to enjoy her short story. You might want to do what I did and start out small. That way, if you still don’t like her, at least you have the rest of the anthology to read!