Discriminating readers may want to look elsewhere.
Bad enough being a newly undead nerd...but Ed's renegade left arm is trying to kill him!
After several strange near-accidents, 13-year-old Ed Bagley wakes up dead. Before that shock wears off, he finds his left arm missing—and then out of nowhere it attacks him! Once he escapes his possessed left arm, he meets Max Moon, a teen werewolf who has been designated his "Dead Buddy." Thank goodness, Max can introduce Ed to Jemini and Evil Clive, who (at least according to Max) have some answers to newly zombified Ed's questions. Suffice to say, Ed is underwhelmed by the answers, but he is thankful for the help in avoiding the fat baby ghouls and, most importantly, in finding his arm, beating it and reattaching it. British children's author David Lee Stone attempts a third leap across the pond under a second pseudonym with, as before, mixed results. (Writing as "David Grimstone," he created the Gladiator Boy series with James de la Rue.) The British-to-American translation is inconsistent and may confuse, and the illustrations often don't match the descriptions in the text. Fans of silly, gory zombie fiction can do better, but the large type and brisk pace make this a possibility for the more reluctant readers among them. Two sequels out already in the U.K. may follow.
Discriminating readers may want to look elsewhere. (Funny horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59514-531-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
Buckets full of gross, but are readers guano scoop up an entire series? Snot likely.
A blatant bid for the Goosebumps audience, with added gushes of vomit.
Nerdy middle schooler Chris discovers that the old-age home at which he volunteers is populated by decrepit, bingo-loving vampires, werewolves and other monsters. As if that’s not terrifying enough, the home is attacked by an army of cat-sized “sussuroblats,” cockroaches with sharp teeth in drooling human mouths. The plot makes a convenient framework on which to hang tantalizing references to grease, farts, school-lunch items like “Salisbury Snake” and suchlike. They escalate into actual juicy burps, funky smells, cascades of phlegmy goo in decorator hues and encounters with the odd slimy tentacle or crunchy spider before the main attraction begins: hurling, and lots of it. As it turns out, learning that the butyric acid in vomit is death to sussuroblats, Chris and his buddies need only manage to lead them all into the local amusement park’s dizzying Gravitron and have them spew all over each other to dissolve the threat. Easy peasy.
Buckets full of gross, but are readers guano scoop up an entire series? Snot likely. (Gross-out horror. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-448-46226-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
A light wash of horror over thought-provoking observations about “dumb” kids and the roots of bullying, with an admixture of...
The Monsterrific series goes Kafka in its final turn.
Bitten by mutant bugs that swarm out of a moldering cereal box, school bully Ludlow finds himself changing into an oversized insect—smelling with his arms, munching on raw leaves, drooling uncontrollably at the suddenly delicious odors coming from Dumpsters and garbage bins. There are scary physical changes, too. Unfortunately, the most logical allies Lud can enlist to understand and cope with his transformation are nerdy habitual victims Norman and Sebastian. Getting past years of bad experiences isn’t going to be easy for either side. Moreover, like the protagonists in preceding volumes, Lud also ultimately has to choose whether to stay a monster or not. Lubar paints a sympathetic portrait of Lud as a victim himself: of nature, nurture and the low expectations of others. But despite troubles in school, he displays throughout a hidden gift for jokes and wordplay that leads in the end to a well-earned talent-show triumph.
A light wash of horror over thought-provoking observations about “dumb” kids and the roots of bullying, with an admixture of comically gross bits. Illustrations not seen. (Horror. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3082-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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