A Rare YA Review–True Grime by Natasha Deen

Publisher: Blueberry Hill Press

Published: 8/24/2011

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Rating: Dessert












Pepper Powder Puff and her partner Harley Hands were fairy cops in training. They were junior members of the True Grime squad. An elite team utilized to keep the evil villains from spreading Violent Illness of Unusual Strength and Resistance (viruses) to humanity. When the biggest and meanest of the baddies breaks out of the Menacer’s Asylum, our dynamic duo are unleashed on Twilight Twinkle aka Claude Von Beulow. Passing as a human high schooler isn’t the easiest transition for our rough and tumble Powder-Puff and she has to tackle some pretty big issues to save humanity, like whether or not humans are worth saving at all.

This was like a fairytale on Red Bull and Ritalin. From the first page, it was full speed ahead with the whimsy and alliterative names. The snot weapons nearly sent me into fits. How absolutely ingenious! I’m not a frequent visitor to the YA genre, and I’m usually not a big fan of the terminally cute, because let’s face it, I’m dark and somewhat skewed. But this was a funny, entertaining read that actually had a pretty decent, tough as nails heroine in Powder. And for all it’s cute and fluffy names and descriptions, Ms. Deen manages to touch on some pretty serious issues, like bullying, poor self-esteem, acceptance, tolerance and even terrorism in a not too scary way.

Powder has a lot of guards to get through initially, but when she’s tossed out of her comfort zone and into the vicious cut throat world of high school (and really, is there anything more vicious than a teenage girl?) her vulnerability and insecurities work their way to the surface. She is crushing on her partner Harley, hard. Actually she has for awhile which makes her twice as vulnerable. This book would make a great gift for a young girl, or even an old Cougar like myself. It's very relevant and empowering without the preachy self help format and could give a lift to someone in need of a smile. I definitely consider this as a worthwhile break from my norm and appreciate the beam of fairy dust it brought to a rainy autumn day.