Review: Max Helsing And The Thirteenth Curse

Max Helsing And The Thirteenth Curse by Curtis Jobling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Honestly closer to a 1.5.

I should have loved this book. It's a nice little concept of a monster hunter who, well, goes around and hunts monsters. It borrows heavily from existing tropes, it's part Buffy and part Dresden, it's like a good bad monster movie.

And yet.

For a book for kids, okay. I can see where there might be some appeal. What I don't get is why it's so poorly executed. Plotlines are dropped, language use is inconsistent, it tries to be too many things all at once and yet doesn't seem to succeed at any of them at all. On one hand, this should be a winning hand in any regard - the descendant of a great monster hunter dealing with growing up while still having responsibilities and duties to deal with, as well as the expectations that go along with the name and actions. It almost makes me want to try and write it myself. Instead, this just really doesn't work. With mostly action in a medium that lends itself to at least coherent plotting, this just doesn't work on many levels at all.

Be wary.

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