The last kids on Earth and the Monster Dimension by Max Braillier

In this, the ninth book of the series, Jack and Quint slip through a rift into the Monster Dimension in their bid to stop the utter destruction of their post-apocalyptic world. Armed with Jack’s Cosmic Hand, Quint’s inventiveness and small pink sticky, Globlet’s capricious assistance they blunder about, lurching from one cliffhanger to another, pursued by Frankenstein creatures bent on their destruction. There are enhanced mad monsters from previous books and they find unusual modes of transport like the rotting monster corpse raft and a taxi mounted on a hand. The friends don’t judge by appearances and some of the most fearsome monsters turn out to be misunderstood and they find allies in the strangest forms. The newsprint format doesn’t do justice to the energetic, expressive illustrations located within the text, including some very squishy monsters, with added speech bubbles. There are ruthless female monsters and so many inventively named characters it is hard to keep up, but the pace is so fast that it doesn’t seem to matter. The added deprecating humour and fun word play make this a winner and of course it leaves readers with more questions than answers, setting us up for the tenth book. Readers new to the series will still enjoy the ride but will want to go back and read the previous books or just catch up viewing the Netflix series.

Themes: Adventure, Humour, Monsters.

Sue Speck