Michael Okon

Comparisons between Monsterland (no connection to the 2016 movie of the same name) and Jurassic Park, in terms of the basic plot concept, are unavoidable: collect populations of very dangerous creatures ("monsters" like vampires, werewolves, and zombies) and put 'em in a themepark for crowds of silly gawking humans to ogle. What could go wrong?

The similarities mostly fall away beyond that, though. These themeparks are near populated areas, not some remote private island. National governments are falling all over themselves to support and be seen promoting these parks. Starkly megalomaniacal motivations afoot. Story aspects that are difficult to believe would ever happen, but that just depends on how much disbelief one is willing to suspend.

A few issues that I had include:
* Most characters were relatively generic stereotypes, right down to the jerk high school quarterback. Even the vampires, which were at least developed a bit beyond being stereotypical bloodsuckers, still mostly talked and behaved like simple stereotypical delinquent teenagers. Not that such people don't exist, but some distinctive depth of character somewhere (or at least some throwaway lines acknowledging the stereotypes) would have been nice.
* Occasional but significant continuity issues, such as how a crowded boatload of parkgoers excitedly looking every which way somehow all missed someone climbing out and atop the boat's canopy cover, etc.
* Just generally simplistic plot and writing. Maybe as an middle-grade-to-early-YA novel (except for the gore), but even then...

OTOH, if your expectations on such aren't too high (such as if you find fun the occasional cheap B-movie experience), this might make for an entertaining light read (per many of the other reviews). Not so much for me.… (més)

Witches Protection Program has a decent story concept, and the overall story was mostly a moderately fun read.

The book suffers from a number of issues that prevent it from being a great read, such as:
* a few strong and supposedly smart personalities that oddly but consistently degenerate into simplistic screaming childishness when upset (especially later in the story);
* a main romantic relationship that basically springs into place out of nowhere; and
* a frequently recurring problem with basic scene continuity and causality: a snake the size of a huge suspension bridge cable that slithers up a man's pantleg, a gun that materializes very much out of nowhere without comment, a lasso that snares securely one moment and is trivially slipped out of the next, etc. This was frequent and significant enough to be moderately frustrating up to about 70% through the book, at which point the action started to ramp up and these speedbumps got a lot worse.

Overall, the story feels like an average high school student's first draft of a good plot idea that could evolve into a solidly good story after some serious refinement, specifically a lot more care toward thinking through scene continuity, character development, and action detail.… (més)

In the first book we find a situation that has gone terribly wrong. By gathering up zombies, werewolves and vampires and putting them into one area and opening it up to the public Victor Konrad has created a situation that almost destroys the world.

Reading this is like watching a movie. I think it would make a wonderful movie. You have it all, governments that do things for the wrong reasons, scientists who have their own agendas, people who are greedy and looking for power. You know in the movies when all of these things come together you are going to have the ride of your life. This book is no different. The author even addresses the issue of stereotyping people. Wyatt and his friends and family are out to save their town from what is coming. The author introduced a new monster to the book, the Glob. I grew up watching every Saturday night a show called, “Nightmare Theater”. One of the most terrifying things a young middle school aged kid can watch, ALONE, is a blob that devours people. This book brought back those horrifying, yet wonderful memories. This is a book you can easily lose yourself in and read in one sitting. Highly recommended.… (més)

Witches Protection Program begins with Wesley (Wes) Rockville, a cop who was reassigned into the witches protection program. His partner, Alistair Verne, briefs him on his first case which involves a woman named Junie “Bags” Meadows and Morgan Pendragon. Morgan’s aunt is trying to release a new cosmetics product that will allow her to control whoever uses it and Wes (and company) are trying to stop her.

I thought this book was entertaining at first, but honestly, it was just too much to have been written in only 200 pages. There was a lot of information that would’ve been useful to know in order to follow the storyline better that just wasn’t there.

My biggest issue was the romance that was just thrown in there. There was no build up and no development. It kinda just felt like it went from 0 to 100 just because. There should’ve been more time dedicated to character development.… (més)