ANOMALIES 53

Ollie Robles and his best friend, Garen Jackson, reunite in a magic land when his dad and her mom are kidnapped by a power-hungry elf.

Ramping up the fighting with artful references to dangling eyeballs and similar rousingly gruesome notes, while adding a horde of zombified ogres to her opener’s cast of golems, dragons, predatory mermaids, and other dangerous Mythicals, Cervantes dishes up a second action-packed crowd pleaser. Struggling both to awaken his own powers as a shape-shifting gilgemish and to master the destructive impulses of his ravening inner dragon, Ollie nonetheless rushes to the rescue when Dr. Robles and Dr. Jackson are snatched by Nole, a raving, megalomaniacal scene-stealer with a dastardly scheme that threatens the human world as well as the Shadowland. Lighthearted banter—"There’s nothing wrong with eating forest goblins, you know. Or even a tasty gnome. Extra crunchy!”—plus a small but feisty manticore sidekick effectively buoy the tale’s overall tone. Readers fond of plot twists will find them in plenty as Ollie (who presents Latine), Garen (who has curly brown hair, green eyes, and golden freckles), and magical allies old and new battle their way through internal and external crises before finding happy, hard-won resolutions.

Breathless otherworldly escapades, featuring flights, fights, and a dandy villain.