May 15, 2012
Grades 4-7 While the default mode in many youth fantasy-horror stories is to go zany, Dahl instead goes epic in this opener of the Troll Hunters series. The four main characters, all out for a meteor shower one night, are quickly introduced. Then the action starts and doesn't let up until the breathless conclusion. An ancient race of horrific troll creatures known as gathool have awoken from their slumber deep in the earth, and they're hungry. The kids learn from a mysterious cryptozoologist, Dr. Hoo (who may or may not be a centaur), that the gathool hate sunlight, but daybreak is still hours away and the beasts are closing in. The unfettered, propulsive narrative is right up the reluctant-reader alley, and the promise of deeper adventures following the satisfying conclusion will keep any reader hooked. A handful of creepy, sepia-tone illustrations keep the atmosphere grim, and a concluding set of pages from Dr. Hoo's notebooks hints at a deeper mythology yet to be revealed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2013
A group of teens watch a meteor shower and learn it's a portent of monster invasions. Banding together as mystical warriors, they fight to send the creatures back where they came from. In both volumes (books one and two), Dahl borrows from mythology, astrology, and master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft; the novels are more genre mash-ups than cohesive narratives.
(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)