Review by Booklist Review
Mona's settling in for a boring Halloween when actual monsters start wreaking havoc on earth in this sprawling, twisty horror comic. The inept cops are no help, since they assume it's all a Halloween prank, but a ring of undead misfits helpfully explain what's going on: every human on the planet is paired with a monster in the shadow dimension. Normally, the phagocyte keeps monsters and humans apart, but someone has gravely injured him, and monsters are killing their humans to gain immortality. Goggle-eyed Mona is unwillingly roped into a scheme to track down the son of the phagocyte to restore order, and with her new not-quite friends--impulsive preteen vampire Ringley (and his pet werepossum), sulky ghoul Shirley, and affectless, possessed doll Robert--she fights her way to the shadow realm. With her finely crosshatched black-and-white artwork, full of skeletal birch trees and looming shadows, Howard strikes a delicious balance between the truly grotesque body horror of the impressive array of monsters, all spindly, skittering appendages, rippling blobs of flesh, and protruding rows of teeth, and the wry, absurdist comedy around Mona's quest. There are some unexpected turns here, too, and for all the Clive-Barker-meets-Adventure-Time playfulness, she ends on a disarmingly sober cliff-hanger. Tailor-made for fans of postmodern horror comedy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
On Halloween night, 10-year-old Mona must forego trick-or-treating when her nonbinary parent opts out of chaperoning to contact their late wife at a séance. That night, the mystical Phagocyte, which "protects and preserves the balance between the worlds," becomes incapacitated, leaving monsters--each of which connect to, and have the power to subsume, a human counterpart--to roam outside their shadow dimension. While fleeing her own monster after it appears suddenly in her house, Mona becomes an unwilling hero, setting off with vampire Ringley, ghoul Shirley, and living sailor doll Robert to locate the Phagocyte's son and ask him to restore the worlds' order. Howard's (The Crossroads at Midnight) detailed black-and-white line art packs in sarcastic, brutalist comedy--"I'm a ten year old child, I will die very quickly," Mona proclaims to her powerful comrades--around truly gruesome moments, including decapitation and flailing entrails. Underneath the nonstop gags in this series starter exists an endearingly emotional journey about a child reconciling herself to the weight of the world thrust upon her. Ages 13--up. (Sept.) ■
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Ten-year-old Mona loves Halloween. However, this year's holiday is different--her mother is dead, her other parent has party plans, and murderous monsters are rampaging through her town. The latter seems like a colossal prank until an enormous, six-legged, skull-faced creature nearly crushes Mona in her living room. When she escapes to a nearby cemetery, she finds a group of young misfits digging up a corpse. She joins these strange kids, and they deliver the corpse to Doctor Fugue, an Invisible Man--style bandaged mad scientist. He teaches Mona monster history and sends her, accompanied by her new friends, on a hero's quest to stop the barrage of creatures. Then the fun and adventure, comedy, and gore kick into high gear. Howard's writing is so razor-sharp, it might have blood dripping from it. She seamlessly incorporates horror references and sophisticated comedic bits into a monster story packed with new lore. Her art is by turns fun and horrifying, with influences from Kate Beaton's pop-eyed ponies to Edward Gorey's lanky figures all in one gorgeous story. After a sad start, Howard gives Mona an epic, grotesque, and humorous Halloween after all. VERDICT Teen fans of "Courtney Crumrin," "Emily the Strange," "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac," and Camp Midnight will devour this one.--Jennie Law, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When nightmarish creatures attack, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a 10-year-old girl. It is Halloween night, and all young Mona wants to do is trick-or-treat, but her parent is unable to take her. In the dark and gloom of night, monsters descend, and Mona finds herself absorbed into a motley but friendly crew of creatures: tween vampire Ringley, creepy living doll Robert, teenage ghoul Shirley, and Banjo the wereopossum. The nightmarish monster scourge has been unleashed by the presumed death of the Phagocyte, a magical being who keeps the balance between worlds. Can Mona and her friends find the Phagocyte's heir before the monsters devour all of humanity? In this spectacularly wrought graphic offering, writer and artist Howard's illustrations are unquestionably striking, utilizing a perfect mood-setting black-and-white pen-and-ink scheme and grabbing its reader with both the scope of its imagination and its clever use of perspective, including fish-eye shots. Despite its prepubescent protagonist, this is not a middle-grade tale; Howard has a keen eye for creative gore that may deter the squeamish, however, those who forge on will be utterly captivated by its unexpected heart and dark humor. Although Howard's first volume in a proposed series is a hefty doorstop at nearly 450 pages, expect readers to blaze through it at wildfire speed and absolutely demand more. Mona's parent is nonbinary; most characters appear to be white. A comic horror tour de force. (character list, reader questions, guide to making a comic) (Graphic horror. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
