Reviewed by Daniel Ryan Johnson
Holiday Spirit Book Two: Destroy All Monsters brings us a cast of familiar literary characters brought into the modern world with a new twist. From Frankenstein to Dracula to the Hunchback of Notre Dame, author John DeGuire takes these famous characters and puts his own spin on their personalities and history. Purchase Here.
The book is fast-paced with short action-packed chapters throughout, making it a quick read that can be hard to put down. With a large cast of characters, we bounce around from one storyline to another until they begin to inevitably intersect. With most of the action of the book taking place in Paris, the reader is treated to a madcap adventure in the City of Lights.
DeGuire has a playful style to his writing, often employing alliteration, words with multiple meanings, and other quirks of language to accentuate passages of frivolity and farce and alleviate the mood in moments of morbidity.
Destroy All Monsters is not for readers looking for a peaceful and PG-rated read. There is plenty of gore, violence, mayhem, and foul language throughout, but the author does a fine job of keeping the book from crossing over to the point where it is overly obscene for a more squeamish reader looking for a book with adult themes.
Beyond telling the story of forces looking to destroy the well-known monsters of literary legend, the book contains many references to the modern world and explores the many problems that face the world today, including climate change, the global rise of authoritarianism, mob mentality, and the pervasive distrust and hatred of people who are different. At times, author John DeGuire addresses these issues head-on, while at other points in the text, they are referenced more subtly.
Holiday Spirit Book Two: Destroy All Monsters is a rollercoaster ride with far more screaming drops than anticipatory climbs. The action never lets up for long as our heroes face one challenge after another in a world that seems determined to destroy all monsters, but can’t seem to properly identify the true monsters that need to be stopped.