Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit

British artist and writer John Allison started his web comic career earlier than most — back in 1998. Though his stories and characters have changed, he sets his serialized comics in the fictional English town of Tackleford. He currently has been working on a comic series called Bad Machinery, which follows six mystery-solving Tackleford teens, all students at Griswalds Grammar School.

If patiently reading a comic strip panel by panel on an electronic screen isn't for you, fear not; last year Allison released the first print installment of Bad Machinery, called The Case of the Team Spirit (YP FIC ALLISON). (Volume 2, The Case of the Good Boy, is due out later this spring.) My colleague Luke, our young adult librarian, reviewed Team Spirit back in July of last year and I have to say I really agree with his take on the overseas import.

It's hard enough that classmates Shauna, Charlotte, Mildred, Jack, Linton and Sunny are having to navigate both a new school year and a new school. Before they know it, they're all embroiled in the same extracurricular mess. The girls resolve to help an old woman whose house is threatened because it sits on the site of a planned football (as in English football, i.e., soccer) stadium. The boys, on the other hand, are investigating why the local football team seems to be truly cursed with bad luck.

This is a fun, fast read that rocks along with humor that's both silly and snarky. The wonderfully drawn illustrations (and accompanying sound effects) tell half the story; they crackle with energy. Though the style is Allison's own, the comic has a manga-like feel to it because of its mix of heartfelt drama and sly wit. But the teens' sarcastic (and entirely believable) repartee is definitely the star of the show.

Allison does a great job of conveying the relationships between his main characters, the way they both support and snipe at each other. In addition, he populates Tackleford with a colorful cast beyond the story's six young protagonists, and gives each character a distinct personality, even the minor ones like the local bully and the resident middleman ("Johnny Swaps").

Teens and adults alike will enjoy the adventures of these young sleuths. They'll have you chuckling aloud and rooting for them as they attempt to right wrongs and and, oh yeah, suss out the supernatural while mollifying their teachers and family. We can all relate, can't we?

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Image by Scott Vandehey available through a Creative Commons license

Ahoy, mateys! Get ready to sail the seven seas with the plucky Jacky Faber! He has all the characteristics you'd want in a ship's boy serving in His Majesty's Royal Navy in 1797. Jacky's brave, resourceful and plays a mean pennywhistle.

Only problem? Jacky is really a Mary.

How did this come to be? Find out in L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (YP FIC MEYER and YP AD FIC MEYER). When she is left abruptly without a family, Mary seeks out alternate means of survival. In doing so, she discovers that taking on the guise of a boy simplifies the already harrowing demands of an orphan left to the mercies of the street.

It's easier bein' a boy, 'cause when someone needs somethin' done like holdin' a horse, they'll always pick a boy 'cause they think the dumbest boy will be better at it than the brightest girl, which is stupid, but there they are.

Mary ends up on the docks, where the Navy ship the H.M.S. Dolphin is assembling its crew. She relies on her inherent charm to earn her passage on board as a ship's boy. Soon enough, though, she learns that passing as a boy — let along a ship's boy — is only the first of many challenges she'll face in such tight quarters. She doesn't know the first thing about ships, and not all her shipmates are friendly. There'll be secret handshakes to learn, pirates to battle and adolescent love to navigate.

Bloody Jack is a rollicking beginning to the adventure series, which thus far encompasses 10 books:

1. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy
2. Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
3. Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
4. In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
5. Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, And Lily of the West
6. My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War
7. Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy
8. The Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, On Her Way to Botany Bay
9. The Mark of the Golden Dragon: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Jewel of the East, Vexation of the West, and Pearl of the South China Sea
10. Viva Jaquelina: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away
11. Boston Jacky: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Taking Care of Business

Perhaps what I like most about Bloody Jack is how it puts a girl at the front and center of the action. Jacky comes across as a young woman realistically relying on her wits to get her through tough, scary situations. She's funny and fearless, a combination that manages to both get her into trouble and out of it. No fainting flower, is our Jacky.

The audiobook, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, is dynamite. Kellgren voices Jacky's rough, streetwise elocution perfectly, with its outrageous grammar and colorful patois. She portrays Jacky with jaunty confidence while not neglecting honest depictions of the fear and distress Jacky feels in battle or at the thought of discovery. The narration is a wonderful way to experience the story.

SHOCKTOBER Zom-B series by Darren Shan YP FIC SHAN

Having already reviewed the super awesome Zom-B, I waited for three more volumes to do an update. Just in time for Shocktober!

SPOILER ALERT: Do NOT read this review if you don't want Zom-B Volume 1's big secrets revealed.







B (AKA Becky, that's right twist ending B is a girl lady!!!) wakes up months after being attacked by a zombie and having her HEART RIPPED OUT OF HER CHEST!!!  Now she is a Zom-B, but unlike the shuffling masses she has her memories and her own mind.  Unfortunately, she is a prisoner/test subject of a secretive military force that is keeping her Underground. She may just find that there really are fates worse than death!

B has left the underground military installation (NO SPOILERS ON HOW!) and is roaming the ravaged remains of London.  Holding as best she can to the semblance of humanity as she tries to find other survivors and escape the horrors of the dead, the living, and the worst: The mutants and the demonic clown of death, Mr. Dowling.





B has been found by others like her. Revitalized, zombies that think.  They call themselves the angels and say they can save the world, but can she trust them? And is she willing to walk away from the only people left on Earth that are like her?







This series is getting better, creepier, gorier, and more nightmare inducing.  It's already up to four volumes with a fifth volume soon to hit our shelves, so you have some catching up to do.  however, with Halloween around the corner this is the perfect time!  Each volume is a quick read, that leaves you wanting to tear open a fresh volume like the shambling undead tear open skulls!  Sorry, that was a little gross, but NOTHING compared to the fiendish horrors and atrocities that Shan has nightmared up for us! Mr. Dowling is absolute nightmare fuel and every time he shows up something gut wrenching (often literally) is sure to happen.  It filled we with a perverse sense of dread and eagerness to see what he would do next, which is the perfect thing in a horror book.  I think Shan has really got a great protagonist with street tough B.  She's just good enough and bad enough to both root for and be believable.  Shan has also populated the world with some fascinatingly freaky survivors for her to run into and keeps thing fresh by introducing just enough new faces to feel lively without getting confusing as to who is who.  It helps that he often slaughters loads of characters to keep you on your toes.  Sometimes I think that the REAL zombie plague is how many new zombie books and movies keep coming out, but this is one of the few shining stars in the field.  Its fast paced, creepy, gross, and filled with some truly clever twists.

You can find Zom-B: Underground in our catalog here.
Zom-B: City in our catalog here.
Zom-B: Angels in our catalog here.

Zom-B by Darren Shan YP FIC SHAN

Everyone thought it was a joke, a hoax, anything but real.  There’s no such thing as zombies.  B just puts it out of her mind and tries to go about her ‘normal’ life.  But B is wondering more and more how normal her life really is.  She tells herself that even though B's dad is a bigot and has a short fuse, he’s basically okay, but more and more B has to face the evil from inside B's dad and inside.  That’s only if B survives!  Turns out flesh eating zombies ARE real and they’re really hungry!

Okay, I totally get that there are about 18 billion zombie books on the market right now, so it is pretty difficult to wade through the moaning hordes of books.  But Darren Shan is a no-brainer for writing a zombie series!  He is the absolute king of modern gross out teen horror!  And he has made a bold and bloody claim to have the best zombie series out there.  What I love is that this book starts with a bloody bang of zombie mayhem, then switches gears and looks at B’s day to day life and what makes B tick.  And B is not our typical hero.  B’s seriously conflicted about following in B's father’s racist footsteps, but too scared to challenge the life B has.  And that conflict is interesting enough even before zombies start ripping people’s brains out!  And the bloody, gruesome violence will not let down Darren Shan fans or any zombie lovers that like their action fast and brutal.  The central mystery of what is causing the outbreaks and who the mystery figure that B calls Owl Man and what makes the mutants different form the zombies will have to be solved in future volumes.  The book definitely ends with a heart-rending climax that will leave readers drooling for the next title.

I’d say that this is the first zombie horror series that stands up to my all-time favorite zombie series The Enemy books by Charlie Higson.  Weird that they both take place in England! The Brits have a lockdown on my favorite zombie fiction! This is the first part of a 12 part series, but you’ll rip through the slender volumes so fast you’ll be left wanting more.  Fortunately, Shan promises a volume every 3 months and we already have Underground the second book in the series. I’ll definitely be following this one and will keep you all recapped after a few more volumes to let you know how the mystery unfolds.

You can check our catalog for Zom-B here.

The Dead by Charlie Higson YP FIC HIGSON

Taking place one year before The Enemy, directly after the Disaster started.  Ed and Jack are best friends trying to survive in a world gone mad.  They team up with a disparate group of surviving kids and move out into the nightmare that is London.  There they encounter danger and death waiting wherever they go.  

This is book 2 of a proposed 6 in the Zombiepocalypse epic that is the Enemy Series.  I LOOOOOOOOVED the first book as you can see here, and I definitely LOOOOOOVE this book too! Astute readers will see there is one less O in my loving of The Dead. I loved how The Enemy started in media res (fancy book talk for in the middle of the action) and didn’t really think we needed a volume that chronicled the beginning of The Disaster.  I was wrong. After reading The Dead, I am glad for the new background information, loved all the new characters, and think that it’s the 2^nd best zombie book I ever read.  What keeps it from being quite as good as The Enemy is that the pacing is slower at times and we don’t have the tension of the split up characters like we did in the first volume.  It really is a close call even with my (very) minor complaints.  This is a great scary horror show.  The zombies are viscous, fierce, and repulsive.  The deaths are surprising and terrifying.  You’ll never know when your favorite characters will be slaughtered before your eyes, so (like the characters themselves) you never feel safe.  This is the best horror series being written today and everyone that like good ghoulish fun should be reading it.  Start with The Enemy and then read The Dead.  Then be looking for The Fear coming out later this year!  I will be!

The Secret Fiend by Shane Peacock YP FIC PEACOCK

It is 1868 and Benjamin Disraeli has become the first Jewish Prime Minister of England. Some fear this is a dangerous change that could imperil England, but this fear is soon replaced by terror of a myth come to bloody life. Spring Heel Jack, a purely fictional fiend has leaped into reality attacking two girls, friends of the now age 14 Sherlock Holmes. Beatrice a poor and beautiful admirer of Holmes claims that Jack appeared from the sky stealing away her friend. Holmes is convinced that she has made the story up for attention, but when another family is attacked he is on the case, while avoiding his enemy, the teenage criminal named only Malefactor.

This is the latest and also greatest of Peacock’s excellent Boy Sherlock Holmes series. I reviewed his last book The Vanishing Girl here, and liked it a great deal, the series has an excellent understanding of the Holmes character and does a brilliant job of imagining him as a young person. This volume gets more into the background of Malefactor and makes clearer how he is becoming the man who will be Holmes’ most dangerous nemesis. Peacock does a good job of recreating Victorian England and its class struggles. He has a real knack for writing believable squalor and criminals. All of these were true of Peacock’s previous entries as well, but what makes The Secret Fiend his best so far is how he is able to go deeper into Sherlock’s life than ever before and how well the relationships between Sherlock and his friends and enemies has built. I recommend reading the previous volumes before this book, but you won’t be lost if you just jump into this latest adventure. I’d recommend this to any fan of historical mysteries, especially of Sherlock Holmes. If you enjoy the series, check out the Mary Quinn Mystery series (YP FIC LEE) as well.

Num8ers by Rachel Ward YP FIC WARD

Jem has seen the numbers since she was born, projected on her brain whenever she looks into someone’s eyes. But it wasn’t until the day her mom died of an overdose that she figured out what the numbers mean: the day the person will die. Knowing this, Jem tries to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze or forming any attachment, but a strange boy named Spider is slowly growing on her, which makes the fact he has only one month to live a constant pain for Jem. When spider and Jem are both near a horrible crime, they have to flee and Jem is determined to find a way to save Spider. But can anything beat the numbers?

This book is rough and tough stuff. Jem and Spider live in poverty in England and are surrounded by crime, drugs, and hopelessness. The novel works so well because Ward really brings these characters to life and lets the reader get to know their world without judging them or writing them off. Because the the novel feels so gritty and real it doesn’t really seem like Sci Fi even though Jem has a unique power. The fact that Jem tries so hard not to use it makes it all the more interesting when she does. I think this is a great read for fans of Ellen Hopkins (YP FIC HOPKINS) and Kevin Brooks (YP FIC BROOKS) or other authors that write stories about seriously troubled teens. This is not a super fun action read, but if you want something a little more serious and unique, give Num8ers a chance.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson YP FIC HIGSON

A terrible disease sweeps the world affecting everyone over the age of 16, killing most the adults on the planets. They were the lucky ones. The adults that don't die turn into rotting child eating monsters, hunting and killing all they can find. In London small pockets of kids survive by banding together and making fortresses out of abandoned buildings, but the grown-ups are getting braver, smarter even and picking off kids one by one. As hope wanes a new boy arrives with a fantastic story of a place with no grown-ups, a place with food, a place that's safe: Buckingham Palace! Two groups of survivors pull their forces and decide to make the dangerous trek to their last hope of safety, but are they chasing a Fairy Tale? They'll soon find there more monster than grown-ups to worry about.

FAIR WARNING: Like the zombies, this book goes for the jugular and doesn't let go. It is absolutely filled with horror, suspense, and action and the reader (like the books kids) never feels safe. This may be the scariest book I've read all year; like, keep-the-closet-light-on-when-you-sleep-after-reading-it scary. What makes the book so brutal is that it gets you really invested in the characters in the book, but none of them are safe. You get to know and like the characters very quickly and you hope they are going to make it, but all of the sudden BAM: Zombie Food. This is definitely a very gross book with some gore here and there, but it is never graphic enough that it becomes unreadable or offensive. However, I'd definitely say this is more for serious horror and suspense fans than the "Zombies are Funny" type. The book is left open for a sequel, so there are a few unresolved plotlines, but it doesn't end with a huge cliffhanger

The Returners by Gemma Malley YP FIC MALLEY

Will doesn’t know if he has a future. His mom died when he was a boy and his father is a raging bigot that wants to keep England for the English. To make matter worse at night he has horrible dreams of death and carnage. Will just wants to be left alone and ignored. Unfortunately wherever he goes he is watched by strangers, all with the same sad, doomed eyes. No one believes him, and he isn’t sure what he believes himself, but then they make contact. They are the Returners, immortal souls that exist to witness the great atrocities of humanity, only to die horribly and be reborn just in time for new horrors. Will says he isn’t one of them, but how do they know about his nightmares of past genocides? As he runs from them and starts to question his reality he starts remembering things he had blacked out in his own life. And when he learns his destiny as a Returner is different than those who follow them he decides he will reject his fate, but can anyone escape fate? Or is history really doomed to repeat itself forever?

This is a dark and thrilling ride into the mind of a troubled teen with some pretty special problems. What works best about the story though is that many of Will’s problems are very real. His mother died in front of him at a young age, his bouts of rage scare and excite him, and his father’s bigotry repels him but also is somehow appealing. These are all things that happen in the world every day. It shows that history’s monsters and madmen were once just confused spiteful young men and women. It is a much more compelling view of how evil is born than most novels usually take. The novel is set only 7 years in the future in England and the idea that a recession in 2009 could lead to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment is chillingly realistic. This is a scary and tense read that looks at how evil is formed and what can be done (if anything) to prevent it.