Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go
In Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck
, the sequel to Heck, we find Milton alive and not so well as he tries to adjust to being the freak that has come back to life. It seems that no one, not even his parents, knows how to deal with his sudden to return to the land of the living. And where do we find Marlo? Moved to Rapacia, of course. There, Grabbit is in charge (we'll just say that he's probably a metal cousin of the Mad Hatter). Rapacia is the place where the kids learn about wants and greed. The types of classes that you would expect in Heck are here, taught by the teachers that you'd expect. The kids are also introduced to Mallvana -- it's probably just what you imagine it to be, Nirvana for kids, in Mall format.
Frankly, what is happening in the land of the living is far freakier than what is happening down in Heck -- at least for the first half of the book. Milton is stalked, meets the curator of a paranormal mall, hooks up with a lawyer who is beyond questionable, gets mixed up with a cult -- and that's a relatively nice fairly spoiler free way to explain it. I've got to say Milton's life in Heck seemed a lot easier than life on earth. At least, his second chance at life.
So yup, it's another wild ride for all involved. Not all of it good. It did seem a bit confusing in places. The Milton alive / Marlo dead thing seemed to take away some of the fun of the first book -- it felt as though there was a lot less character interaction / development in this book even as there were even more characters added to the mix. It was a little weird in that sense. Still despite those flaws, they were so minor that I did go ahead and pre-order the third book, because overall it did stay true to the first book / was just as fun as the first. And, of course I do want to see how those unresolved issues are dealt with.
In case you stumble upon Blimpo: The Third Circle of Heck
on accident, be forewarned, one must really pass through Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go and Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck in order to truly appreciate Blimpo, otherwise one could end up a little confused.I had felt that Rapacia had been good, though not as good as Heck. I'm a bit undecided about how to compare Blimpo to Heck, but it's better than Rapacia was.
Yes, the horrible horrible horrible puns and acronyms are back. Potty humor (there's a BOWEL movement for example). While pegged as a young reader series, there are things here that are much more amusing to the big kids among us (the celeb guest stars for example - Milton goes on the road with Jack Kerouac). Basically, yes, all of the things that make you either love or hate the series are back.
There are multiple storylines:
- Milton has vowed to save Virgil from Blimpo
- Blimpo, something is going on there, but what?
- Milton has vowed to save Marlo from H-e-double-hockey-sticks
- Marlo is working for the big guy downstairs in some internship program that brings to mind a very nasty episode of Ugly Betty.
- Bea "Elsa" Bubb is on the war path (isn't she always?)
- Damian, Necia, and the KOOKS still have their issues up above. Including Lucky.
- The angels are still wondering about what is happening in Heck
If you want a book that has a beginning and an end, you'll be disappointed. There was just so much happening here that pieces got resolved - sort of. Much like Rapacia, this book sets up the next book. But somehow, it's not all that disappointing that we're left with more questions than answers this time around as it was set up rather well.
I'm giving it 5 stars because I really did love it, though I was torn between 4 and 5 stars. Maybe 4 1/2. There was still something a little off, I think it was the parts focusing on the people up above. I'm not sure why, it seems out of place in this book, but it's such a small part of the book that it's not enough for me to lower my rating.
Fibble: The Fourth Circle of Heck -- This is one of those times when half stars would be nice. It's better than three stars but nowhere near four star quality. So I had to debate with myself - what to give this book -- what reasons do I have to push it to four? All I came up with really was that I love this series in general and yeah, sorry that wasn't enough so I had to go with three.The problem with this book is that it just felt as though something was missing. I didn't devour this book as I did the others (buying in early July and only finishing it now in late August - I stopped to read numerous other books, something I wouldn't have dare done with the other books in the series). The historical figures were not used as well as they have been in prior books. The author writing himself into the story went nowhere (not that it can't be used in later books, but in this one it was just not interesting). The battles that the Fausters faced was boring compared to previous adventures. The soul swapping wasn't interesting.
Still, that's not to say that the book didn't have its good points, it had plenty - I did say I had to debate between 3 and 4 stars. The handling of the reality shows was brilliant. The interactions between Marlo and Milton, also genius. Bea "Elsa" Bubb was not overused, but did get worked into this story in a perfect way.
I'm sure that I will continue on with the series, but my expectations for it have dropped quite a bit after this book.
