ZOMBIES, FRAT BOYS, MONSTER FLASH MOBS

A mixed-race orphan struggles to find his place in the world as a supernatural apocalypse looms in this YA novel.

Teenage Liam Reilly has been looking out for himself for a long time. After his mother died, his father disappeared into his workas a scientist—and then he just disappeared altogether. Now Liam is a ward of the university where his father worked and tries not to make waves; he putters around in his father’s old lab, audits college classes, and attempts to reconstruct his father’s final experiment, which may have caused his disappearance. Yet Liam’s solitary, structured existence is upended when he makes friends with several smart college students and encounters a demon. As it turns out, the demon, Gerald, has been sent to help Liam defeat an invasion of other demons who intend to take over the planet. Liam and his friends must stop a group of rich, White frat boys and sorority girls from fully opening a portal to hell. Neill juggles a lot of different elements in this book, as the main character and his friends must face down not only manticores and other creatures, but also racism and xenophobia. The story jumps from the adventures on the college campus to a secondary plot in a detention center, which initially feels extraneous. The center is full of Latin American children in cages who’ve been separated from their families, who were only looking for better lives in America; they’re guarded by women who can shoot lightning from their hands and a demigod disguised as a corrections officer. Overall, Neill is at his best when he confronts racism head-on, and amid all the fantasy trappings, his novel does provide effective commentary on modern social and political issues.

A timely fantasy tale of real and imaginary monsters in this YA series entry.