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Book Review: Monster Club by Darren Arnofsky and Ari Handel

Monster  Club by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel

HarperCollins, 2022

ISBN: 9780063136632

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

If you’ve seen The Wrestler, Black Swan, or The Whale, you know Darren Aronofsky is a serious director who directs serious films.  Who knew that he and Ari Handel could write such a seriously fun kid’s book?  A loving tribute to the nerdy, role-playing gamers who still hide amongst the ‘cool’ students in junior high schools across the country, it’s impossible to dislike Monster Club.  It has it all: cool, comic-book styled monsters, light, frothy action that’s its easy to enjoy and laugh along with, and of course, the nerdy kid gets the girl!

 

Set against the backdrop of the famed Coney Island boardwalk, Eric “Doodles” King and his junior high pals, who go by the nicknames of Yoo-hoo, Smash, Hollywood, and Beanie, spend their time outside of school playing Monster Club, an RPG game they designed themselves, a cross between Dungeons and Dragons and pro wrestling. Their characters consist of monster drawings created by the players, each with hit points and attack skills, using some dice and a spinner from the old boardgame LIFE to determine their actions as the characters battle it out for superiority. 

 

Fortune strikes in the form of a Sharpie with magic ink, which allows Eric to draw characters that come to life off the page.  Can he use this gift to help save his dad’s carnival, which is threatened by land developers?  

 

The story sells itself with the characters and breezy, happy nature of the writing. It’s easy to root and relate to the Monster Clubbers since we all knew kids like them when we were kids, charming in their goofiness. Brainy Beanie is a member of a club that designs drones and Smash tends to crash her skateboard, often into lockers.  Of course, they get picked on by the big kids, and can’t play sports worth a damn.  The story picks up the pace and shifts into the crazy fun section when the Sharpie falls into the wrong hands, allowing for creatures such as Noodle Monsters and Crumple Noodle.  The last quarter of the book is insane fun,  reminiscent of the movie Gremlins.  You knew that the gremlins were bad and were wrecking the town, yet you had to laugh at how they did it, thanks to the presentation.  It’s the same with the Noodle Monsters as they go wild on Coney Island.

 

However, the Monster Club creations of Brickman, BellyBeast, Robokillz and their ilk stand ready to do battle and save Coney Island.  The fights themselves are some of the best parts.  They aren’t bloody, they are fun, Gremlins-style.  BellyBeast picks his nose and sticks it in Brickman’s ear, while Brickman himself dishes out some pretty mean ball-shots with his cannonball on a chain to neighborhood bullies.  Readers will be enthusiastically cheering on the good guys in their quest to smash those evil Noodle Monsters and save the carnival.

 

Bottom line here: this is lighthearted fun with a lot of bounce to it, and it’s one all readers of this site would enjoy.  It’s oriented towards the middle grade/early teen crowd, but it’s plenty of fun for adults too, especially those who grew up like the main characters, they will see themselves in the story.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on September 13, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: In the Lair of Legends by David Buzan

In The Lair of Legends by David Buzan

Black Rose Writing, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-68513-250-7 (Paperback), 978-1-68513-331-3 (Hardcover)

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

In The Lair of Legends by David Buzan is a well-written, exciting tale that combines action, myth and history.

 

Jolon Winterhawk is a Nez Perce warrior who was one of thousands of Native Americans who fought for the Union and Confederacy in the Civil War. Ten years later Lieutenant Winterhawk has one last assignment for the Union before returning to his wife and daughter. He is accompanying a large shipment of confiscated gold ore to an Army post in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. The train carrying the ore is ambushed by a vengeful, renegade Mexican general. The raid sets off a chain of clashes between Winterhawk, the general, corrupt Union officers, lumberjacks and the Native people’s legendary Nu’numic (Ancient Ones, Sasquatch, Bigfoot).

 

The plot is fast-paced. Almost very chapter brings new, deadly clashes. The author describes the fights in stop-action detail and with abundant gore. However, the author presents the action with interesting and important pieces of history. The role of Native Americans in the Civil War, their plight after the War and the role of railroads in the West put the story in perspective. The author has done a lot of additional research. His detailed descriptions of weapons, ballooning and logging add verisimilitude to his novel.

 

Young adult and adult readers should enjoy the novel’s action and learning about history at the same time.

 

Highly recommended for young adults and adults

 

Contains: gore, mild profanity

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

Posted on August 2, 2023 by , 1 comment

Book Review: The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney

Cover art for The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney

The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney

Razorbill, 2023

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593524602

Available: Hardcover ( Bookshop.org )

 

Whistler Beach in Maine is a magical place, but frightening for those who know the truth. When was the last time Maine wasn’t like this? Stephen King didn’t invent the spookiness and weirdness of the state– it’s been there forever. Rebecca Mahoney has unchained the dark charms of the coastal region and churned out a beautiful storm of a YA novel that is tough to categorize. At different points, it could be considered horror, fantasy, thriller, or family drama. All fit, and that’s the charm of The Memory Eater

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Seventeen-year-old Alana Harlow has an interesting job. While she should be planning for college and enjoying the hell that is high school, she’s inherited the Harlow business. Every day, she treks down to the cave on the beach and helps people lose chosen memories– and makes sure they emerge alive.

 

Inside that cave resides a unique monster. The Memory Eater was brought into the country two hundred years ago by the Harlow family. Instead of killing the massive beast, they imprisoned her with a dark magic deep within the cavern. What does the creature look like? Two stories tall, or long, depending on the situation, and clever. Her flesh is covered in the faces of the memories she devours, and her own memories might not be her own. She speaks in riddles, hungry, aching to be filled with the lives of others. Mahoney has created a masterpiece of a beast here.

 

Alana guides guests into the cave to have unpleasant memories taken from them, while protecting the rest. The business keeps Whistler Beach bustling. The family business is a tricky, twisted history. Her own life is a mess, too, navigating romance and friendship while figuring out how to handle the weight of the job.

 

Then one day, the Memory Eater escapes, along with a bunch of secrets. The holes in Alana’s memory become crucial bits of the puzzle to survival and her family history.

 

The writing is lean and deceptively simple. Mahoney nails teen relationships and small town life. There’s a lot to digest in these pages, yet she has penned a novel that flows easy, allowing the horrors and relationships to build in waves.

 

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on May 10, 2023 by , Reply
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