why only three stars?? 
 i really don't know. this book should have been an out-of the-park home run. killer unicorns and the teenage virgins who hunt them. i mean - criminy. 
 because i love unicorns - i am a girl and it is in our contract. and i love the inverting of the traditional, which is not a girl-thing, but a me-thing. and the author earned my respect when she called joel a hipster, but not in an author-goes-rabid-over-a-goodreads-review (you know who you are), but in a cheeky, funny way that made me want to throw popcorn at her. 
 so i was totally predisposed to loving this book. 
 but i only liked it. 
 and i keep trying to pinpoint the reasons why it didn't blow my dress up. 
 premise = fantastic 
 characters = human, likable, intriguing, realistic responses to unusual situations, sufficient badassery with weapons 
 storyline = several things i didn't see coming, one of which was a dastardly rubbing-hands-together evil mastermindy plot. 
 pacing = medium. enough space for character development, but plenty of action scenes with unicorn attacks and some sexy times (for virgins, these girls do get around) 
 so what's my flipping problem?? i don't know. and it is infuriating me trying to think about what it was lacking to throw this into the five- or even four-star realm. maybe the secondary characters were not developed enough?? because there are a lot of these little unicorn-hunters, but only about three of them get any significant backstory. the rest are kind of glossed. and it's true - i love a big split-narrative epic tale. but that is such a minor quibble, isn't it? am i just getting cranky in my old age? 
 while i keep thinking - please enjoy this tableau i just made: 
 okay, if i am spending my sunday morning making and photographing unicorn-crime scenes instead of doing my homework, i am being a very bad student... 
 i am definitely going to read the second part of this, and as many more as she writes. we will see if this tepid reaction is just temporary insanity, or a sign that i have aged out of unicorn fantasy novels.