City of Monsters, Book 1 – Monster School

City of Monsters, Book 1 – Monster School by DC Green

(Ford Street Publishing)

PB RRP $18.95

ISBN 9781925000078

Reviewed by Francine Sculli

Princes aren’t your ordinary people, but Prince Thomas isn’t your ordinary prince either. He’s one of the few human beings left in Monstro City, a place overridden with monsters that don’t favour humes. His existence would be a little more exciting if he were allowed to do anything, but his days are largely consumed by Lord Boron’s dead boring history lessons (that don’t teach him much at all) and confinement in his bedroom with only Erica, a humourless ogre, to keep him entertained with absurd protection rituals.

Thomas knows very little of the world outside. He knows that the castle was raided by deadly vampires who abducted his father and brother. He knows his mother has since been comatose in a hospital bed and that Lord Boron has earned himself the privilege of being King until Thomas turns eighteen. But Thomas knows there is more to all of this.

One day his curiosity gets the better of him. He bribes money-driven Erica and devises a crazy plan to mask himself as a swamp monster named PT, build a mechanical replica of himself to sit in on Lord Boron’s boring history lessons and sets off to attend the local monster school, Monstro Central School.  At school, Thomas hopes to learn as much as he can about the outside world but he gets much more than he bargains for.

He meets an equally made cast of misfit monsters (think zombies, vampires, trolls, oversized spiders and mummies) who allow him to join their group, the Dead Gang. But these monsters quickly discover that PT isn’t who claims to be. He’s not a swamp monster but a human Prince Thomas. Resisting the urge to eat his brains out and suck his blood, the monsters begrudgingly decide

Even after the monsters discover that PT isn’t really a swamp monster, but a human Prince Thomas, the monsters decide not to eat his brains out or suck his blood, instead they begrudgingly decide to help him discover what is really going on over at the castle. What they discover sends them on an even wilder adventure – overturning the throne, reclaiming Thomas’ right as King, shapeshifting into Mayor Viethe, being chased by lethal gob hunters and confronting one of the scariest mythical creatures in the world – the dragon Kalthazari.

Monster School is a wildly imaginative story that is rippling with adventure, humour, blood and guts and the most barbaric line up of intriguing characters you’ll ever meet. DC Green has carved a fierce world that is sure to keep even the most reluctant reader engrossed. With interesting language, every monster you can imagine and some woven themes of friendship, trust and honour – Monster School is definitely gloriously grotesque.