Karma Meets a Zombie is probably the most ambitious book I've chosen for my reading programme for ages nine and ten. I read Karma Fights a Monster some time ago and I loved it. I even wrote about it in an essay on monsters and stereotypes because I was struck by how unusual the monster is.Karma Meets a Zombie is a different kind of unusual. For instance, is the monster necessarily the antagonist? What makes someone a monster? And what does a monster hunter do, really?There are several reasons I call it an ambitious read for my book club. For one, no pictures! It's the first book we're reading together that has no inside illustrations.Two, I haven't touched upon horror as a theme at all so far, especially as I didn't read much horror as a child. (I did read a few Goosebumps because I won five of those for ... something. Now that I come to think of it, I … [Read more...]
Karma Fights a Monster
Karma Tandin is a monster hunter, and he is determined to capitalise on it. With his friend Chimmi's help, he makes posters advertising his services. Among other things, he hopes to impress pretty Dawa, who, for whatever reason, continually seems disappointed in him.Unfortunately, the poster does not turn out very well; the photograph of him is awful.Additionally, his mother (incidentally one of my favourite characters in the story) notices that Karma has put his number wrong. So much for that.With this promising beginning, Karma embarks on his first adventure -- and I loved it. I enjoyed the story so much that I would go as far as to say Karma Fights a Monster is among the best middle-grade books I've read this year. The characters, the writing style, the wholly unique plot - everything was lovely.When I started reading it, I hoped there would be 'real' … [Read more...]