The Mallow Marsh Monster, the second book in the Goolz Next Door series, follows the monster-hunting adventures of Harold Bell and his next door neighbors, the Goolz family. This book is at times suspenseful, at other times dark, and at times touching and humorous. The main characters and the citizens of their small town are quirky and, actually, a bit odd. However, the way that they care about each other and stick together when the going gets tough makes it easy to look past the odd and see the good.

The monster in this book balances on the line between scary and grotesque, and it is not a typical tame kids’ ghost story. The plot is interesting, and the monster is believable, at least as far as Marsh Monsters can be believed. This book is more of a cryptozoology foray than a fireside ghost story. Kids who like scary stories will find plenty to love here, but it is not for the faint of heart (or the weak of stomach).

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Boyd’s Mill Press

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  2 religious exclamations; 10 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore:  A character is tranquilized; report of a murder; report of a monster killing people; report of a character badly injured in a fall; a character keeps preserved animal and animal part specimens; a character has blood on his hands and clothing; characters find body parts; report of a character attacked by animals and a person; a scary picture of a monster attacking people is described a few times; report of an animal attacked by a monster; report of a child being bullied; characters discover evidence of a monster attack, such as torn clothing; a few reports of a monster attacking people; a character is bitten by a monster; characters are chased by monsters or fight monsters with no serious injury a few times; scary scene in which a monster tries to get into a house to attack children;characters examine a disembodied foot, which is  a central focus of a scene and is mentioned or handled again a few times; a few characters shed skin and body parts in a grotesque transformation. Sex/Nudity:  A character remembers kissing a girl; a boy thinks about how pretty a girl is; a few discussions of whether a boy and girl are boyfriend and girlfriend; a boy is nervous around the girl he likes; mild flirting, such as winking or smiling meaningfully; discussion that a girl has a crush on a boy; part of a character’s backside is revealed as he’s bent over doing manual labor (no sexual connotation); a few instances of character being naked because they lost their clothes (no sexual connotation).

Mature Subject Matter:

Overcoming physical disability is a major theme of this book; bullying (report of); same-sex marriage (brief mention).

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Fictitious medicine is used in a curative fashion.