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noapo88's review
4.0
A fun read, not as good as the first one,but still better than a lot of other young adult fiction. Will continue to the third book
williamsdebbied's review against another edition
4.0
Maggie Quinn: Girl Vs. Evil, book 2.
Maggie dreams of writing for her college newspaper, but freshmen are not allowed on staff. Maggie doesn't let that stop her. She goes undercover as a sorority pledge and publishes a series of articles. As Maggie gets more deeply involved in sorority life, she senses something dark and dangerous. She draws on Nancy Drew once again. Lisa and Justin are back to help, but can they all survive Hellweek?
Another fun mix of mystery and humor with a large splash of the supernatural.
Maggie dreams of writing for her college newspaper, but freshmen are not allowed on staff. Maggie doesn't let that stop her. She goes undercover as a sorority pledge and publishes a series of articles. As Maggie gets more deeply involved in sorority life, she senses something dark and dangerous. She draws on Nancy Drew once again. Lisa and Justin are back to help, but can they all survive Hellweek?
Another fun mix of mystery and humor with a large splash of the supernatural.
princess_starr's review against another edition
4.0
While the main conflict of this installment does lift…well, everything from clichéd B movie plot (Sorority girls from Hell!), Clement-Moore still manages to make the second book in the Maggie Quinn series entertaining and funny.
To begin with, tangent: Quite obviously, the majority of YA books deal with the fact that high school is pretty much every single teenager/young adult’s life. What grinds my nerves, however, are the ones that treat high school as the end-all, be-all. Does high school suck? Good God, yes. But there’s this fantastic thing after high school (should the kids choose this route): college. Unfortunately, there’s a good chunk of YA that doesn’t really acknowledge this magical place. So, I tend to like books that go for a bit more young adult and deal with the early college years (because, let’s face it, a lot of the high school drama still happens in post-secondary education, but there’s a whole new game to play there).
So, getting into this made me smile, because I could relate with Maggie about starting over in college. Sure, she doesn’t exactly get all of the dorm drama, but everything else—the new social schedule, the class load, getting knocked down by professors because you don’t have the credits yet—it brings a new level to the atypical YA book. I also liked watching Maggie going through Rush; again, it’s something that feels actually realistic (sorority girls from Hell aside), and the stress of Rush plus classwork plus demon-slaying manages to play a role in the plot.
Unfortunately, much like the last book, there really isn’t all that much to the villains. Victoria and Juliana are pretty much the Real Housewives of the Ninth Circle, who ensnare naïve pledges to further their own wealth and power. (It’s actually described as a demonic pyramid scheme, but seeing as how they’re at the top, yeah, it’s their show.) There’s no real depth or explanation for their actions, aside from being blonde and perfect and being bitchy.
Generally, I liked the current members and pledges of SAXi. Devon’s probably my favorite, as she’s the most willing to mentor Maggie. Also, the death of her boyfriend made me really feel for her; out of all of the girls, she’s the most sympathetic. I liked Holly, although I didn’t grab onto her story and history with her mother. She’s snarky and plays off of Maggie well, but there should have been more to her character. My big frustration with the SAXi girls is that, by book’s end, almost every single one of these new friends leaves Bedivere U. If there’s anything good about a college experience is meeting new people and making connections with them. The fact that all of these girls, who just had their souls saved by Maggie, got unceremoniously dropped at the end of the book irked me; is it a problem for her to have another friend aside from Lisa and Justin?
Aside from that, I liked how Maggie approached the idea of doing Rush and how it effects her Seer powers. It’s interesting that when she mentions that she had visions of Greek letters, Maggie tries to get something positive out of her visions. Her first thought isn’t completely “Crap, have to go defend the world from evil,” but rather, very reporter-like, “Well, we’ll check it out, and maybe I can get a column out of this.”
While Lisa doesn’t show up until the end of the book, she suddenly gets another depth to her characterization. I’m still not a fan of how her sexual assault was handled, and while it’s nice to see her try to redeem herself after summoning a demon, it does bother me that the issue at hand is pushed aside. I would have at least liked a hint of Lisa’s progress with dealing from that aftermath, not just “I summoned a demon, I’ve got a reserve seat in the handbasket to Hell.” I wanted to know a lot more about this in general.
In the last review, I mentioned that Maggie’s relationship with her family also felt natural. It really feels like she’s closer to her dad, and how he’s willing to help out with her more intriguing questions. It also helps that he does get worried whenever she entangles herself in one of these Evil-busting schemes. Maggie’s mom got a little more development in this book; again, she cares and worries about her daughter, even if she’s not completely in the loop. I do have a nitpick about her mother being all upset that Maggie doesn’t have a boyfriend and isn’t interested in girly things and that means she’s not normal. I think we’re a little beyond that. And I generally like Gran, but there’s really not much more to her than being the mentor figure. She’s a fun adult figure, but with not much substance.
Despite my issues, I still really enjoy this volume. It’s a fun read, while putting Maggie in a new element that actually does affect her powers (demonic or not). Aside from the fact that there’s no real cast expansion (which would have been a fantastic edition), I loved reading this book and really wanted to know what happened next.
To begin with, tangent: Quite obviously, the majority of YA books deal with the fact that high school is pretty much every single teenager/young adult’s life. What grinds my nerves, however, are the ones that treat high school as the end-all, be-all. Does high school suck? Good God, yes. But there’s this fantastic thing after high school (should the kids choose this route): college. Unfortunately, there’s a good chunk of YA that doesn’t really acknowledge this magical place. So, I tend to like books that go for a bit more young adult and deal with the early college years (because, let’s face it, a lot of the high school drama still happens in post-secondary education, but there’s a whole new game to play there).
So, getting into this made me smile, because I could relate with Maggie about starting over in college. Sure, she doesn’t exactly get all of the dorm drama, but everything else—the new social schedule, the class load, getting knocked down by professors because you don’t have the credits yet—it brings a new level to the atypical YA book. I also liked watching Maggie going through Rush; again, it’s something that feels actually realistic (sorority girls from Hell aside), and the stress of Rush plus classwork plus demon-slaying manages to play a role in the plot.
Unfortunately, much like the last book, there really isn’t all that much to the villains. Victoria and Juliana are pretty much the Real Housewives of the Ninth Circle, who ensnare naïve pledges to further their own wealth and power. (It’s actually described as a demonic pyramid scheme, but seeing as how they’re at the top, yeah, it’s their show.) There’s no real depth or explanation for their actions, aside from being blonde and perfect and being bitchy.
Generally, I liked the current members and pledges of SAXi. Devon’s probably my favorite, as she’s the most willing to mentor Maggie. Also, the death of her boyfriend made me really feel for her; out of all of the girls, she’s the most sympathetic. I liked Holly, although I didn’t grab onto her story and history with her mother. She’s snarky and plays off of Maggie well, but there should have been more to her character. My big frustration with the SAXi girls is that, by book’s end, almost every single one of these new friends leaves Bedivere U. If there’s anything good about a college experience is meeting new people and making connections with them. The fact that all of these girls, who just had their souls saved by Maggie, got unceremoniously dropped at the end of the book irked me; is it a problem for her to have another friend aside from Lisa and Justin?
Aside from that, I liked how Maggie approached the idea of doing Rush and how it effects her Seer powers. It’s interesting that when she mentions that she had visions of Greek letters, Maggie tries to get something positive out of her visions. Her first thought isn’t completely “Crap, have to go defend the world from evil,” but rather, very reporter-like, “Well, we’ll check it out, and maybe I can get a column out of this.”
While Lisa doesn’t show up until the end of the book, she suddenly gets another depth to her characterization. I’m still not a fan of how her sexual assault was handled, and while it’s nice to see her try to redeem herself after summoning a demon, it does bother me that the issue at hand is pushed aside. I would have at least liked a hint of Lisa’s progress with dealing from that aftermath, not just “I summoned a demon, I’ve got a reserve seat in the handbasket to Hell.” I wanted to know a lot more about this in general.
In the last review, I mentioned that Maggie’s relationship with her family also felt natural. It really feels like she’s closer to her dad, and how he’s willing to help out with her more intriguing questions. It also helps that he does get worried whenever she entangles herself in one of these Evil-busting schemes. Maggie’s mom got a little more development in this book; again, she cares and worries about her daughter, even if she’s not completely in the loop. I do have a nitpick about her mother being all upset that Maggie doesn’t have a boyfriend and isn’t interested in girly things and that means she’s not normal. I think we’re a little beyond that. And I generally like Gran, but there’s really not much more to her than being the mentor figure. She’s a fun adult figure, but with not much substance.
Despite my issues, I still really enjoy this volume. It’s a fun read, while putting Maggie in a new element that actually does affect her powers (demonic or not). Aside from the fact that there’s no real cast expansion (which would have been a fantastic edition), I loved reading this book and really wanted to know what happened next.
thataudaciouslady's review against another edition
2.0
This book was fine. It was basically a Buffy episode with a dash of that one Sandman issue about Calliope. The sorority angle was interesting but the story didn't go as far into interrogating fear of female power, etc. as I would have liked.
goodbyepuckpie's review against another edition
4.0
[Read in Canada on my holiday.]
Quite liked this one - it's really more of a 3.5 star - it's a pretty solid YA fantasy, something like a crossover between Greek and Buffy, both of which I love. I really enjoyed that it wasn't wholly condemning all parts of the Greek lifestyle and the plot felt like a slightly fresher take than the first book.
Quite liked this one - it's really more of a 3.5 star - it's a pretty solid YA fantasy, something like a crossover between Greek and Buffy, both of which I love. I really enjoyed that it wasn't wholly condemning all parts of the Greek lifestyle and the plot felt like a slightly fresher take than the first book.
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