Monsterland by Michael Phillip Cash

-Carrie Anne

For a group of teenagers who regularly argue who would win the battle in a fight between werewolves, zombies, and vampires, having tickets for the grand opening of Monsterland is a dream come true.  For Monsterland is a theme park where you can run with the wolves, walk with the zombies, and party with the vampires, all in a safe environment.  What could possibly go wrong?

I loved Cash's descriptions of the teens in their day to day lives and eagerly read about the park, its founder, and all of its features.  Inevitably, it started to fall apart, though, (rather abruptly)  and my interest in the book waned.  Even though we were introduced to a few of the monsters, I didn't really care what happened to them; I don't think they were fleshed out nearly as well as the teenagers.  The scenes were action packed, but I didn't always understand the motivations of those involved.  Maybe it's simply because they were monsters?

Cash excels at having very approachable, believable characters.  There's always a little humor, and a few surprises.  This book is no exception.  The idea of a Monsterland is a clever one and I wish we would have seen more of it, but instead we rush right into its destruction.  Still, I would recommend any Monster fan give the story a try and imagine what could have been.