Girls that Growl by Mari Mancusi is the third book in the Blood Coven Vampire series. This book again follows Rayne the Vampire Slayer as she is forced to infiltrate the cheerleading squad to find out why their football player boyfriends have gone missing. Rayne makes the cheerleading squad and find that the cheerleaders have been turned into werewolves. Through all of this Rayne's relationship with Jareth is on rocky ground and her life is slowly spinning out of control.
Mancusi again does a fantastic job of combining a hysterical over the top plot with very complex characters and serious issues. Rayne spends most of the book struggling with her self identity and sabotaging her relationships with the people she loves as she searches for a way to deal with werewolf cheerleaders.
Appropriateness: This book has the same level of adult behavior as the last in the series. Rayne's bad girl antics are shown to be a cover for her insecurity in her life. There's some drinking, some sex talk (but no actual sex) and Rayne lies to her mother (and leaves the country without permission). One of the side characters is a cutter and it is handled in an extremely delicate way. While some think that cutting is something that should never be talked about or mentioned at all, I appreciated Mancusi's handling of the topic.
