Hell Week by Rosemary Clement-Moore. (Grades 9+)If you've read the first Maggie Quinn book, you know that Maggie Quinn has some special talents. She tends to have dreams that are, well, psychic. And lately her powers have been getting even stronger.
In Prom Dates from Hell, Maggie had to deal with demonic prom crashers. In Hell Week she's facing something even scarier: Rush.
In an effort to get published in the local newspaper, journalism student Maggie infiltrates rush week and started writing articles under the pseudonym "The Phantom Rushee". As she writes her snarky articles, Maggie begins to uncover something sinister going on with the sorority Sigma Alpha Xi. But in order to ferret out the evil on campus, Maggie has to stay undercover as a pledge and the consequences will be more dangerous than she could ever imagine.
Maggie Quinn is a smart, sassy heroine and I maintain that these books will give any Buffy fan her fix. Written with a great sarcastic humor, the book had me laughing out loud. Throw in a smidgen of romance, a dash of mystery, and a sprinkling of interesting secondary characters and you've got yourself a great book.
You'll probably get more out of it if you've read Prom Dates from Hell, but I read it last year (and my memory for books is ridiculously poor) and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. But I don't know why you would want to skip a dose of Maggie Quinn. And (hooray!) there's a third Maggie Quinn book due out in March: Highway to Hell.
Check out Rosemary Clement-Moore's website, RCM's blog, and more reviews at: Avid Teen Reader, A Patchwork of Books, and Kiss the Book. Also check out a Cynsations interview with RCM.
