What do you do, and where do you go, after you save the world from the zombie apocalypse? Lloyd, DeeDee and Kevin have to go back to work safeguarding the portal to hell in the beer fridge of the 24/7 Demon Mart.
In this third installment of this hilarious series, things seem to be looking up for our lovable crew, until the grim reaper shows up. Well A grim reaper, an angel of death (because of course there are more than one). Out of work and depressed, Zackumzaphielhermesiappotholonian (or Zack for short) is just looking for a friend and maybe a shoulder to cry on since getting dumped by his girlfriend.
The story hits the ground running, and as you might expect, things quickly go from bad to worse to much, much worse. All the while with great humor and characters you actually care about. In a lot of comedies, the characters are simply, well caricatures, but here they actually grow and change, even it if may be at the expense of a running joke or two. Even some of the minor characters start to grow and evolve, making this much more of a living, breathing world than you might expect from a comedy horror series.
I particularly enjoyed seeing how ghosts work, especially the idea that souls are like food - you leave them too long and they go rotten.
This continues with the great cinematic feel to it, something I personally really enjoy. Beign able to see everything that is going on as I read it just helps to bring it more to life. Even things that I can't really picture in my mind (such as how does a magic 8-ball manage to hold such detailed conversations, let alone cry?) still work and are very effective.
The one thing I did notice was that Caroline Ford Vanderbilt was not in this book (after being in all the others), but actually that was a bit of a relief (one can only take so much of her) and it keeps the story from becoming quite so predictable (because IF she were there, you know things would ultimately be her fault!).
With the main creatures in this one being ghosts (as opposed to demons or zombies), I got less of a horror aspect than the previous books, but it wasn't something I missed. And maybe I just don't find ghosts as scary, or having the 'ewwww' factor that other monsters can elicit.
There are a couple of surprises as well in this one, and some very unexpected character development, which is always nice. In addition there are some new questions that just beg to be explored in a later book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and now begin (once more) the long wait for the next one.
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Because it is all fun and games . . .
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