THE TWISTED TOWER OF ENDLESS TORMENT

Zenith Maelstrom returns to the terrifying land of GrahBhag on a mission to find his sister and return her to her rightful age.

This sequel to The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things (2023) finds the sibling duo once again inside the dangerous and disturbing world of GrahBhag. Though Zenith returns only to find Apogee, who was “supernaturally shrunken and regressed” from 14 to 4, he quickly realizes that he’s an outlaw, wanted for the pair’s earlier killing of the Great Wurm. He’s put on trial and sentenced to stay indefinitely in Eternity Tower. The bizarre, topsy-turvy tower tricks and torments its prisoners, robbing Zenith of all hope of escape. Renzetti’s imaginative world and its creatures are delightfully dark and twisted. Zenith’s bizarre yet helpful relationships with some of the oddball inmates of the prison make for the most compelling parts of the story. Kreeble, the gargoyle who helped the siblings in the first book, plays a disappointingly more limited role this time. Much of the story unfolds in the tower (and features some particularly horrifying events); readers will likely miss the varied and wild settings of GrahBhag itself. This volume ends with a cliffhanger, clearly setting up for the next installment: Though much is left unanswered, there’s plenty here to leave readers clamoring for the third book. Human characters are minimally described and racially ambiguous.

A well-paced follow-up full of deliciously nightmarish creatures and scenes.