The Slither Sisters: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman
| The Slither Sisters: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: The second in this trilogy finds the author on firmer ground, with the drama as fun as before. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 160 | Date: January 2013 |
| Publisher: Quirk Books | |
| ISBN: 9781594745935 | |
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This, if anything, is an abject lesson in the dangers of recycling. The brand spanking new Lovecraft Middle school actually reused bits of an old mansion where arcane experiments were going on, meaning the school to this day serves as a portal to a different universe, one of horrid man-eating demons and other monsters, all with designs on people like Robert Arthur. last time round Robert had trouble with one teacher, who was not as he appeared - this time it's double trouble with two of the school's most popular, most cupcake-giving girls. How can he in his lowly position find the strength to save everyone?
This second book in this series, which at time of writing will be a trilogy but surely has the steam up to go a lot further, continues directly from the first, while probably having enough snappy exposition to allow one to delve right in. I enjoyed the world-building last time round - here the pressure is piled on ordinary Joe Robert, who is one of only three pupils to know what the threat to the school is.
Once again that threat has to be shown in the light of normal everyday reality, and this time the balance is more successful. It actually helps that the plot concentrates on one aspect of school life, and runs pell-mell from A to B, with a nice increase in child-friendly threat, and with no unnecessary diversions that might sap the pace or divert one's attention. Yes, perhaps there was more interest last time as regards introducing us to different aspects of the story arc, which is replaced here by an unfortunate approach of bringing in far too many adults that know things, but the straightforward drama here is a plus.
Once again Quirk Books serve the story well - the slightness of its running time hidden by deluxe hardback packaging, lenticular cover and decent illustrations. This might not be the most original series for the young pre-teen, but it has few faults and after the first two books I'm certainly enjoying it. This one yet again leads us straight to a cliff-hanger reveal, so the third is already on my mental wish-list with the book reviewing gods.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
Those who enjoyed this will definitely relish the series beginning with Geek Inc: Technoslime Terror by Mark Griffiths.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Slither Sisters: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Slither Sisters: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman at Amazon.com.
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