Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory

3.5 Stars

 

“You know what killed the cat? Me.”

Thirteen years ago Harrison Harrison (or Harrison Squared, if you prefer) and his family set out from the shores of Dunnsmouth for a three hour tour . . .


(*sings A THREEEEEE HOUR TOUR*)

when a storm kicked up and stuff and things happened that caused Harrison to lose his leg and his father to lose his life. Fastforward to the present where H2 and his mother have returned to Dunnsmouth in order to for his mother to research the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni - or in layman’s terms the “colossal squid” . . .



You’re probably thinking: “I’ve seen enough Hentai to know where this is going!” To which I reply – ewwwww. Good grief you perverts, does everything have to be nasty? It’s a young adult book for cripes sake!

Because this is a young adult book, the leading male is a . . . . you guessed it YOUNG ADULT. That means he’s stuck suffering through as the new kid at high school. Let’s just say his classmates aren’t too interested in making new friends . . .



Ha! Just kidding. They aren't THAT bad. Lucky for Harrison, not everyone in town is a d-bag (especially after his mother goes missing like IMMEDIATELY after their arrival) and he’s able to enlist the help of his new buddy . . . .



in order to figure out exactly what happened.

After reading We Are All Completely Fine I was most definitely interested in seeing what else Daryl Gregory’s crazy brain could come up with. When I heard that he would be taking the leading male from a very grown-up sort of story and putting him in the wayback machine in order to create a YA novel my curiosity was really over-the-top. I’ll be the first to admit, that I wasn’t sure Gregory could pull it off – but boy did he. This was a solid story and since it was written by a guy NOT known for young adult books, he didn’t fall into the tired trope of a stupidass love story. Nope. This was all about solving the mystery, building the world of Dunnsmouth, filling the reader in on H2’s (and the town’s) past and leaving enough breadcrumbs for there to be a future with the series. That’s really the only part that lost me. I am a fan of the standalone so I’ll be a jerk and round down due to the potential for a part two.

If you have a youngster in your life who appreciates a little action and adventure, I highly recommend this one. You might even want to read it to, because Gregory is pretty awesome when it comes to dialogue . . .

“Superheroes wear masks – they don’t try to get credit for everything they do.”

“Aquaman doesn’t wear a mask.”

“Lub, I hate to break this to you, but no one cares about Aquaman.”

“Wow. Hurtful.”

Hehehehehe.

Man all this talk about fish is making me hungry!