The Awesome

Raised by a monster-hunting single mother, 17-year-old Maggie Cunningham is highly trained in combat, but out of her depth when it comes to being a normal teenager. In order to graduate to hunting the fiercest creatures, including vampires, Maggie must lose her virginity. “The problem with vampires is they love virgins, and not in the biblical humpy-humpy way. They love to eat them,” Maggie explains. “Until I did the nasty with a dong of my choosing, I was a liability.” Before she can do the deed, a run-in with a vampire prince gives her strange powers and heightened senses. Blisteringly funny and unrepentantly crass, Maggie’s hard-edged narration is the soul of Maggie’s story, which thoughtfully explores her complicated relationships with her boyfriend and take-no-prisoners mother. Darrows (who wrote Mary: The Summoning as Hillary Monahan) also delivers some racy sex scenes, ectoplasmic goop and gore aplenty, and a heroine with no shortage of cunning, skill, and power. Readers eagerly anticipating the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters would do very well to read this in the meantime. Ages 15–up. Agent: Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Agency. (May)