The Hunted Became The Hunter

Finally after the confusion and trickery of Netgalley and Hot Key Books I finally managed to read Trollhunters.

1969 San Bernardino, California.

190 missing children.

After a year of devastated families it stops with as much mystery as it began. Jim Sturges' brother Jack was the last child to go missing, and he's never forgotten the terrible sight under the bridge. "Nothing but black. But then the black moved."

Cue Jim Sturges Jnr, son of Jim Sturges and nephew of Jack Sturges. He's stumbling through life not rocking the boat, until he meets a very familiar stranger.

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There are some wonderful pieces of description and you really feel immersed in the atmosphere and connected with the characters. When Jack goes missing while out on his bike the terror feels incredibly real. The milk cartons featuring pictures of the local missing children swirl around in the darkness and Jim clutches his plastic ray gun as if it could really save him, and a shiver runs down your spine.

As with every story with a high school, you need a bully to rally against, and in this book it's Steve Jorgensen-Warner. "Handsome in the oddest way. His eyes were too small and his nose piggish, he had a ridiculous amount of hair and a couple of teeth that looked like fangs [...] unnatural muscular bulk and odd way of speaking."

Some how these hulking trolls have trained like ninjas, they sneak gracefully into the storyline. So much so that I had to scan back a few times because I had no idea where they'd come from. Don't worry, after that they become their usual trollish self... most of the time.

There are also some really heart breaking moments in the story, ultimately, apart from the warrior tale it is a story about loss. As well as the obvious loss of Jim losing his brother, there's the loss his son feels growing up with a father who is distant. "Missing. What a perfect way to describe my Dad in the years to come."

Trollhunters was an enjoyable read, but I felt a little bit let down by the middle of the book. With so much going on at either end the middle felt a little bit rushed.

While reading I made three guesses about what would happen in the plot. I don't normally do this, you think about the rest of the book of course, but I don't normally make cast iron decisions about thing I think are going to happen.. I just felt like there were a few things that were a little cliche/obvious... so I made three guesses and by the end of the book? Nailed it! This has never happened before, I never felt something was so obvious in a book. Even in a kids book I don't think I should be able to guess that much... that's not really a bad thing though, after all it did give me great satisfaction to be right!

Really there was only one bit that I found challenging and that was the tirade from the Scottish character... I know Scottish people and they NEVER [yes that requires capitals because there are hand gestures and everything to go with it], NEVER sound like that. It was the most confusing thing to read, and horribly stereotypical.

At the end of the day, despite my random thoughts this book is very good. There is nothing that would really exclude it for any reader. It's nice to see a book that steps away from a lot of the usual subject matters for this age group.