Well, last fall I was embarrassed by how much I liked Monster High by Lisi Harrison. Utterly shamefaced, rather. This week I read the sequel The Ghoul Next Door and the guilty pleasure feeling has resurfaced. I like these books. Dammit. I do. They are silly and shallow... and I still like them. Bollocks. In Monster High 2 Cleo and co. are prepping for a fashion shoot to model her ancestor's jewels. During the previous book Frankie Stein outed the monster community and the RADs are subjected to curfews and hiding. But Frankie hopes to change that and rallies the others. They decide to film a docu-drama entitled "The Ghoul Next Door" where the RADs can come forward and speak their peace. Cleo is furious, it's her shoot or the movie. Her friends have to choose....Like I said, the plot is superficial. However, the centralized idea surrounding the civil rights of the monster community is actually quite intriguing... pop-culturisms notwithstanding. I'm not the biggest fan of much of the writing, which I found geared at the 11 year old girls (who are buying the dolls)... but I am basically a grown up Lost Girl at heart... so there. It's fun. It's candy. It takes about 3 hours to read one and works well for a quick light read. I like that each book focuses on one of the different characters. The next installment, Where there's a Wolf there's a Way, features Clawdeen (I hope). It'll be interesting to see the back story on her considering her doll came under such scrutiny. Thanks Mattel. You couldn't have made her seem a little less vapid in your description, could you?4 out of 5 stars.- review courtesy of www.bibliopunkk.net
