Darren Pillsbury

Now, the synopsis is a bit misleading. This is actually not a book but a collection of the first four “Peter and the Monsters” serial. This contains four stories, Peter and the Dead Men, Peter and the Vampires, Peter and the Changling, Peter and the Swamp Monster. As with normal serials, each piece is a story into and of itself, but there is a larger overarching story that slowly reveals itself during the course of the serial.

Like ‘Serpent in the Glass’, Peter and the Vampires is young adult fare – but don’t let that detour you. This is my first review of a serial, so bear with me. To make this easier I’m going to write a little mini-review for each story:

Peter and the Dead Men - Story #1- This story introduces the main characters – Peter – who has just been moved by his mother from CA to the small town of Duskerville. They are moving in with Peter’s grandfather, who Peter has never met. Things are not as peaceful as they seem, as Peter finds out when he and the neighbor boy, Dill, find charred dead men wandering Peter’s backyard.

While I didn’t exactly dislike this story, it didn’t really hook me in or make me want to keep reading. In fact, I struggled to finish it. The story does have a good mystery, but at the end left too many things unexplained.

Peter and the Vampires -Story #2- This story starts with Peter falling ill and missing a week of school. The night before he returns, he sees a girl who he knows from the bus, standing in the yard in the middle of the night. The next day he finds out that girl died the week before, the day after Peter fell ill. Other children disappear, and Peter takes it upon himself to stop the vampire menace before its too late.

This is the story that really hooked me. Several parts are laugh out loud funny – like when Dill and Peter go to the church to steal vampire hunting supplies. their interactions with the priests are perfect. The ending is a bit mushy/happy for a vampire story, but it works with the young adult themes and setting.

Peter and the Changling -Story #3 – While hanging out at home, Peter’s mom ropes him and Dill into babysitting Peter’s little sister Beth. Things quickly go wrong when Beth grows fangs and starts munching on the furniture. Peter and Dill must fight off the changling while searching for the truth about what happened to the real Beth.

Anyone who has ever babysat a little terror can relate to this story. The antics of the Changling Beth as she terrorizes Dill and Peter are perfectly over-the-top funny. And you’ll be dying at the end, when Changling Beth meets her nemesis – real Beth!

Peter and the Swamp Monster -Story #4 – Peter and Dill decide to enjoy one of the last nice days of summer by inter-tubing down the river to the lake. Unfortunately, their peaceful day is interrupted by a monster attack. Two kids are taken, with Peter and Dill as the only witnesses. But when the adults don’t believe them, its up to Peter and Dill to save their classmates.

This story was my favorite of the collection. Peter and Dill are outside their element in the forest, and I loved it. I also really liked how Peter and Dill’s interactions have evolved over the course of the stories. This story also sets off how the two characters have grown. Although the overall arc of this story reminds of the Korean monster movie ‘The Host,’ the authors unique take still make this an original and engaging tale. I won’t spoil the ending, but its absolutely hilarious how the boys end up defeating the monster.

Overall Serial Arc - I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but Peter’s Grandfather has some dark secrets – some of which tie into their family. Its hinted that even perhaps Peter is fated to draw dark forces to him, which is why he runs into so many monsters. I’m intrigued to say the least.… (más)

Peter and the Mannequins - Story #5- In order to pay off the damage the boys caused, they are assigned community service dusting the plants in the mall. This is something I love about these books – they saved those two kids from the swamp monster, but they have to face the negative consequences of their actions. Anyway, Peter swears he sees a mannequin in a window move but of course Dill doesn’t believe him. After seeing a movie at the mall they end up trapped by the mannequins and taken to see the leader, who thinks Peter is the destroyer. With the help of his grandfather they manage to escape.

I really liked this story. Full of action, the fate of the mannequins was also a little sad. We also learn a little more about the history of Peter’s family.

Peter and the Psycho Trick-Or-Treaters - Story #6- Halloween. Unable to trick-or-treat at the mall event, Peter and Dill go to the annual downtown event. A group of younger kids attack them and steal Peter’s bag of goodies, although Dill manages to fight them off and keep his haul. Back at home, Melissa, Peter’s mom, is admonishing Peter, when there is a knock on the door. The psycho’s are back, but the really scary part is that Peter’s mom recognizes them from her childhood. The psycho’s manage to get into the house and terrorize Peter, Dill, Beth, and Melissa until grandfather gets home and scares them away. They leave a cryptic warning about one more year before escaping in to the woods.

Peter and the Carnival of Evil -Story #7 – Peter and Dill head to the carnival. Peter manages to have fun, despite the carnival being eerily similar to a dream he had a few days before. All that changes in the Hall of Mirrors, where Peter is haunted by the faces of children looking out at him from inside the glass. Then, during one of the rides, a classmate sitting one boat behind him disappears. The police are called, but they are unable to find anything and declare that the girl must be playing a prank, so its up to Peter to save the day with the help of his grandfather.

So far I like how this volume manages to tie back into the larger storyline, and also present a list of less traditional monsters to terrorize Peter.

Peter and the Werewolves - Story #8- Thanksgiving day, Melissa gets a call into work from her boss. Grandfather refuses to babysit, so she is forced to bring Peter and Beth with her into work, with Dill along for the ride. The collage intern offers to take Peter and Dill with him to the frat house for dinner. Only Peter and Dill don’t realize they are the ones on the menu.

The author does an amazing job of keeping Dill and Peter sounding and acting like 10 year old boys, caught up in situations beyond their control. The fights, especially with the werewolves, are very believable. At first I wondered how the boys could realistically fight off a pack of werewolves by themselves, but I was not disappointed at the end.

I also continue to enjoy the contrast and interplay between Dill and Peter. Dill is the latchkey kid, into late night monster movies, but who is the first to run when confronted with a real monster, and Peter, the typically well behaved kid with a deep sense of loyalty to friends and family.

I am also impressed with the way the author presents the monsters. Not everything is black-and-white good versus evil. A few of the monsters are obviously and terrifyingly evil, but several of the encounters are shaded heavily into the grey area, with Peter taking on the role of monster and destroyer.… (más)

When we last saw Dill, Peter, and his grandfather, Dill was in a bit of trouble (I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil anything).

Peter and the Frankenstein – Story #9

In order to solve Dill’s little problem (see Vol. 2), Peter’s grandfather calls a friend of his, one Dr. Veedermeier. However, Peter soon discovers the good doctor has secrets of his own. This story starts out on a light note, but turns dark very quickly. I loved the variation on the frankenstein’s monsters that we see in this story, although they are very disturbing. Dr. V is a fun character, I hope we see more of him in the future.

Peter and the Gingerbread Men – Story #10

A few weeks after the Frankenstein incident, the baker is murdered. Dill wants to see a CSI team at work and drags Peter to the crime scene. But what they find instead is an army of cute little Gingerbread men, who attack Dill and Peter. The boys barely manage to escape. They return in the morning with their grandfather in tow and discover that someone set the baker up with a magic formula for creating golems. Unfortunately, before they do anything about it, grandfather is arrested by the police for disturbing the scene of a crime. The boys are again attacked, and are only saved by the intervention of a few old friends. I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, but at the end of this story Peter and Dill make a new friend.

Peter and the Dark Side – Story #11

After a bad day at school, Peter wishes he were bad so he could get back at his mean teacher and the bullies at school. The next day, it seems his wish comes true. The majority of this story is told from Dill’s POV, and I really enjoyed being as his head (as opposed to Peter’s) as he reacts to evil-Peter’s school-day shenanigans. In fact, I hope we get more stories from Dill’s POV in the future. The whole gang must team up to stop Evil-Peter before he ruins the Christmas parade – and Peter’s reputation!

Peter and the Yeti – Story #12

Peter and the gang head to Mount Woccaminoa for a school ski-trip (although Dill hilariously referes to the Mountain as Mt. Wocca Wocca for the entire book – and the Yeti as the Wocca-wocca). At first Peter’s grandfather refuses to let Peter go because Woccaminoa means ‘Snow demon’ in the native Indian tongue. However, Peter’s mom over-rules grandfather (because of course they don’t tell her about Peter’s monster problems or about the name of the mountain) and insists that Peter can go on the trip.

The first night Peter sees the monster from afar. The next day, things go wrong and Peter and Dill end up captured by the monster. Now they face death by monster or hypothermia unless they can escape an entire family of Yeti!

Peter and the Morgue – Story #13

After their brush with death on Mount Woccaminoa, Peter and Dill are taken to the local hospital. Dill is totally unharmed, but Peter has frostbite and must stay overnight in the hospital – alone. Now the bodies in the morgue on the 2nd floor have come back from the grave to kill Peter. He must escape with his life – without the help of his friends he has come to rely on so much.

This volume fixes one of the problems I had with volume 2 by really jump starting the over-arcing plot narrative. We find out more about the curse on Peter, more history of the family, and a lot more information about Peter’s grandfather. The mysterious phrase uttered by the Psycho trick-or-treaters, ‘the boss says one more year,’ is explained.

On the whole, this volume is also darker than the proceeding narrative, which I like. I also like that not every monster is of the traditional variety. The story Peter and the Dark Side is my favorite out of this collection for this very reason. Peter and the Morgue is the weakest story in this collection by far, but it is also a freebie (every other collection only had 4 stories, but the inclusion of Peter and the Morgue clocks this bunch in at 5 stories, so I can’t really complain.)… (más)