mglit | Daddy Mojo

Why You Need to Read My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf

The problem with a Paul Tobin book is that you want to read every word. That’s not really a problem per se, but you want to get to the end of it so that you can find out how all of this silliness ends. And we mean that in the fondest of ways. My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf takes a premise that elementary ages, middle school students and RPG gamers have kicked around since they were first staked or howled at the moon. The moment you mention the title your mind starts to play out how they would fight, what environment would be friendliest to each monster and how could such a battle realistically take place without attracting massive amounts of attention.

My Vampire Vs. Your Werewolf is MGLIT with an addictive premise that’s paced well with action throughout.

Think about the title and try not to read it

The Flicker, dystopian mglit with too much message and not enough fun

Seasons Change as the classic song from Expose goes. And while some trends in mglit might ebb and flow, the dystopian, end-of-the-world novel with a plucky, female heroine will never die. The Flicker is an entry into that genre that wants to accomplish so much but ends up tripping over its intended inclusiveness. It’s challenging to find a sympathetic or interesting character in the first 85% of the book, and the lengths that it went to in order to check off virtue signal boxes has us recalling that classic Keanu Reeves scene from Always Be My Maybe.

The Flicker wants to be your favorite new dystopian mglit series, but its slow, preachy, whiny delivery will do all that it can to dissuade all but the most diehard readers.

Kids, there are better books out there than this.

Westfallen is mglit that perfectly baits the hook and rewards readers

Westfallen is the mglit book that you didn’t know that you needed. In this case the ‘you’ that we’re referencing are upper-elementary, middle school or just those good-time readers who want to engage in a solidly paced, semi-plausible action novel that feels like something that makes you think ‘they don’t make em like that anymore’. Westfallen also flies in the face of recent mglit books that brazenly start their book series by putting a number on its spine. I’m all for optimistic thinking, but stating the goal that more books in the series will follow this one, before establishing their awesomeness is a practice that’s fallen far short lately.

Westfallen is the adventure of two trios of kids, separated by 80 years who are communicating via a radio they found in the waning days of WWII.

Start with the end in mind when creating a series

Dead Girls Walking is YA horror that fails to kill

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, good marketing and not judging a book by its cover walk into a bar. Marketing assures the book that the issues impacting its wider enjoyment will be mitigated by the niche appeal and box-checking demographics. After all, an mglit book whose main character is going to a queer, horror-obsessed overnight camp for girls is ripe for crossover appeal. Toss in the fact that the author is a Black queer horror writer who is inspired by the culture’s relation to the supernatural. Alas, this is where I need to stop all but the most devout readers who read books by their sense of obligation, as opposed to their overall enjoyment, and put forth that this is not the horror book that the masses are looking for.

Dead Girls Walking has sick seeds of YA horror, but it’s too dramatic up front and too manic and directionless in the second half.

Keep running, from this book

The Vanquishers: Secret of the Reaping, redeeming vampire mglit sequel

It’s great when the second book is a series is better than the first. Don’t live life in the rear-view mirror, keep pressing on with the pedal to the metal and tell your story. The Vanquishers established its roots as mglit vampire with a family and historical twist. The new generation of vampire slayers and their training had been dormant because the vampires had either called a truce or gone the way of the dodo. In Secret of the Reaping, the dual-fanged creatures are back, getting bolder and the history of the group might have something to do with it. Much to the enjoyment of upper-elementary through middle school students, the sequel zips along at a quicker pace with more action than its predecessor.

The Vanquishers: Secret of the Reaping is an mglit sequel that’s better than the first, with more humor and faster action, but long chapters.

Olivetti, mglit that makes you believe that a typewriter can communicate

If these walls could talk. The aspect of inanimate objects communicating or having personalities is a fun way to think isn’t it? The walls of a school would have a different story than that of a hospital and a home would be something much more personal. Olivetti is the story of a typewriter and how it came to communicate with the family where it’s lived for years. Kids, a typewriter is a manual device that would create documents when the keys are pressed down. The hammer would physically move the specific letter that you pressed before raising a thin film of ink that would allow the indention of said key to create the letter on the paper upon impact. It’s also a go-to for some creative types who like the tactile process of creating manuscripts and find the clacking sound of keys rapidly and correctly hitting their intended destination soothing, cathartic, and an enhancement to the process. As a novel, Olivetti is a charming throwback of an mglit book that asks you to suspend belief, and then effortlessly brings you along if you chose to believe that a typewriter has a personality all its own.

Olivetti is mglit that delivers heart and a strong story in a very sneaky way that will charm reluctant readers and make fans of the genre happy too.

See: Charming and surprising

Grounded For All Eternity succeeds with its playfully evil intent if you let it

Grounded For All Eternity is hyperbole. True story: for a while, I thought hyperbole was pronounced hyper bowl and really was just people bowling really fast. This is a case where a youth does something bad, really bad, and thinks that they’ll be grounded for a very long time. This is also no ordinary kid. Mal lives in Hell, again, that’s not hyperbole, he lives in Hell. It’s hot, with lots of red and black décor, and has various circles that comprise neighborhoods with homes, fallen angels, and flying folks. Grounded For All Eternity is thrilling mglit that takes a leap of faith to follow its premise, but rewards readers with a story that’s ironically about redemption and friendship.

Grounded For All Eternity is devilish fish-out-of-water mglit about a trio of teens who live in Hell and leave for one night to have some Earth-bound fun.

It’s Ok, really, it’s OK. Read it and have fun

Let The Monster Out, succeeds were it not for those muddling meddling kids

Allegory, teen-angst, outsiders, corporate shenanigans, and overcoming your fears meet in mglit, what’ll ya have? If you’ve ever been to The Varsity in Atlanta, which is a fabulous place to grab a hot dog, they’ll greet you that way. Let The Monster Out is mglit that wants to be in the Stranger Things, but with-more-heart club, and almost gets there. It has high aspirations and does offer plenty of thrills along the way, but left us feeling empty as though the book was playing favorites, let us explain.

Let The Monster Out has moments of mglit through a techno thriller lens, but jams in feelings that moot the scares and slows the pace.

Evil Corporation and kids overcoming stuff 101