When the monster-zombie apocalypse finally happened—as all the movies warned it would—Jack Sullivan was rather surprised at how well he handled it. Now he just needs to figure out how to handle the other teen survivors.
When the monster-zombie apocalypse finally happened—as all the movies warned it would—Jack Sullivan was rather surprised at how well he handled it. Now he just needs to figure out how to handle the other teen survivors.
Thirteen-year-old Jack Sullivan would call himself a … late bloomer.
After all, 42 days ago he was just a slightly nerdy nobody who bounced around from one foster family to another. But now, he’s officially a guy in charge!
All it took was a deadly monster-zombie apocalypse. You know, the sorta thing you see unleashed in sci-fi flicks where people are transformed into monsters and everyone else needs to keep from being eaten.
Yep, one little apocalypse later, and Jack is a monster-clobbering champ.
How did he do it?
Simple: He started treating life like a video game. You know how in video games there are challenges you complete to earn trophies and achievements? Well, that’s what Jack set up for himself: He calls them Feats of Apocalyptic Success!
Beating a zombie in a foot race earns an Outrun trophy, for instance. Taking a selfie with someone he knew before they were zombified results in a Say Cheese achievement. And there’s a whole slew of Mashing Monster and Zapping Zombie awards he’s grabbed in the weeks since it all started.
Fortunately, he hasn’t done it all on his own. Early on, he was able to reconnect with his best bud, Quint, who just happens to be an awesome inventor of sweet little anti-monster devices.
Then they met up with the school bully, Dirk. That didn’t seem like such a great thing until they realized that Dirk can sock creepers with the same ferocity that he used to unleash on fellow high schoolers. And having a beefy creature-clunker on the team can definitely be an advantage.
Now, they’re out hoping to find June del Toro. I won’t say that Jack’s got a crush on her or anything, but he definitely thinks that she’s cooler and braver than anyone he knows. In fact, when he started that trophy thing, Jacked dreamed up a special achievement with her name on it first. (It’s kind of embarrassing to discuss.)
Anyway, who knows? Jack supposes that if the four of them could ever get together and work as a team, the sky’s the limit.
Now, that’s a good name for a trophy if ever he heard one.
None.
Something happened that suddenly turned people into deadly monsters and shambling zombies. But whatever it was, none of the teens have a clue. Perhaps one day they’ll figure out what happened and try to set things right.
There are no parents in the mix.
When the monster apocalypse took place, Jack’s foster family drove away just before he got home. Clint’s family is off somewhere on vacation. June saw her parents on a rescue bus run by the military. They tried to get off and run back to her, but the soldier driver wouldn’t stop long enough to let them. And Dirk? Well, Dirk doesn’t talk about his family.
All of that said, the story warmly describes the love of family. And Jack gets a portrait of what a happy family looks like. He also talks about his long-running desire for an affectionate clan of his own. And, in a way, Jack and the others build family-like relationship by the end of the story. Even Dirk becomes a “big, lovable, jerk-faced, reformed-bully” in Jack’s eyes. Jack even adopts a large dog-like monster as a family pet.
When June talks to Jack about his generally positive attitude amid their shared apocalyptic event, Jack tells her: “I’m trying really hard here to enjoy every moment. With friends.”
The teens use words such as “crud” and “butt,” as in: “Your sandwich smells like squirrel butt.”
This being a monster/zombie tale, we get a lot of destruction and deadliness in the mix, too. Jack tells us, for instance, that the 40-foot-high monsters eat both people and zombies. We see one such creature pick up a zombie for a snack, but we aren’t shown the actual munching.
Readers also encounter a huge multi-eyed, jagged-toothed creature that Jack names Blarrg. It gets his scent early on and chases him throughout the story. This enormous creature smashes buildings and vehicles. Jack runs from it and shoots an acid bomb into its eyes. Then, later, he rams a broken baseball bat into the creature’s head, killing it. (We do see a small gush of blood in this singular incident. Otherwise, mashed monsters emit a purple goo when killed.)
Characters hit other monsters with clubs, arrows and fists. We see tentacles get lopped off. The teens are thumped about but never seriously injured.
Jack has an obvious crush on June del Toro. And though she barely remembers ever seeing him before, she eventually takes a liking to this awkward kid. But there’s no romance in the mix.
In fact, Jack notes: “It turns out that June was definitely no damsel in distress. And she most definitely did not need rescuing. In the end, we all rescued each other.”
Jack counts that achievement as the point at which he earned the June award of Apocalyptic Success.
Have you ever wondered what choices you might make during a zombie attack? What about a scary situation without monsters? How do you think you’d handle a real-world disaster?
Psalm 46:1 declares, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” What does that mean in a real-world sense? How can we rely on God’s strength when things are frightening or unsettling?
All of the teens in this story had to deal with their troubles without their parents’ help, but they turned to each other. How can good friends help when things are dire? How can you help when someone else is in trouble?
This bestselling, apocalypse-focused graphic novel is packed with cartoony monster-and-zombie zapping, stabbing and thumping. But there’s nothing gory or scary in the generally humorous mix. (There’s also a related Netflix show.)
The book praises family and encourages caring for others. And it suggests that even former enemies can find the good in one another when they work together for a common cause.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
