The Curse of Greg is the second of Chris Rylander’s series entitled An Epic Series of Failures and is an exciting and comical adventure. Having begun the series with this book, I felt in the dark from time to time so I would suggest starting with book one, The Legend of Greg, but it was still easy to follow the story without knowing every detail that happened in the previous book. Along with entertaining us, Rylander teaches some great moral lessons such as the importance of not being prejudiced and realizing others might not be how we originally thought they were. The book is full of characters who seem so different but manage to become friends and great support to each other. We even meet a character with a serious vocabulary, so plan to learn a few words as well. Rylander leaves us with a cliffhanger so expect to want to pick up the next in the series as soon as it becomes available. Those who love stories about trolls, elves, and magic will enjoy The Curse of Greg.

Review of an Advance Reading Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  3 religious exclamations; 1 scatological words.

Violence/Gore:  Many (33) brief incidents including metaphors about violent things; character likes to smash things; verbal threats; potential battles and death; characters planning to kill others; reference to beheading; reference to killing monsters; reference to spiders crawling into head through nostrils; reference to adult character getting abducted; characters saw an animal carcass; reference to seeing ghosts; second-hand reports of people dying and murders; second-hand report of character’s pants on fire; character hurt by fantasy character and imagining others getting killed; a few incidents of characters attacking others, some involving killing. One extended incident of characters attacking others.

Sex/Nudity:  A few (4) brief incidents including flirting; character says she likes romance novels; reference to people making out.

Mature Subject Matter:

Homelessness; references to animal waste and bodily functions.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

References to cigarettes and drinking alcohol.