Sunday 27 March 2016

Book #15 - 'Trollhunters' by Guillermo del Toro & Daniel Kraus

Started - 18/03/16
Finished - 27/03/16

I'm a big fan of almost everything Guillermo Del Toro does (and I felt a little bad about not warming
to The Strain), then I heard Trollhunters was illustrated and that was all I needed. This is my first time reading Daniel Kraus, but I will look up more of his work now.

It's YA fiction even if the sheer about of gore and some of the themes are darker than I get from most young adult fiction with this kind of marketing.

To be clear everything from the cover work to the type screams it's the young side of young adult, but some of the descriptions and some of the events are decidedly on the adult side of young adult. It's a great balance. One of the reasons I've not read YA fiction in a while (beyond the need people seem to have of shoe horning love triangles into them) is the softening of aspects that could give the stories a much better edge and impact. There is too much rounding of corners, treating kids like they shouldn't read this stuff. This was a really refreshing change.
As Del Toro was involved you know you're in for buckets of imagination that's beyond the pale. There are characters that are stereotypes, some plot points that are too happenstance to be believed but really these things are tiny by comparison.

It's a good rollicking romp of a story that doesn't gloss over the mental impacts of these situations. If I don't see a film version in the next few years I'll be very surprised.

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