“School-Age Heroes Return”: A Review of Revenge of the Space Surfing Butt Monkeys (Gale Harbour Book Two) by C.D. Gallant-King

 

 (Stories I Found in the Closet, 2022). ISBN: 979-8-5424346-7-4

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to review Book One of this series, Psycho Hose Beast from Outer Space, which I am hoping will be at least a trilogy. In that review (of a book I thoroughly enjoyed), I talked about the classic roots of the series—Stephen King’s Stand by Me, ET, Goonies, and Stranger Things—and the great appeal to the American psyche of middle and high school kids coming together to beat the Big Bad in an inspiring Coming of Age adventure. It’s right up there with the mystique of the Hollywood Western.

Revenge of the Space Surfing Butt Monkeys (as I said about the first book, don’t let the title throw you—there is plenty of substance here) lives up to the myriad pressures that a second book in a series must manage. Similar to the follow-up to a Triple Platinum debut (music is a core part of this series, from chapter subtitles being songs of the era to the characters’ teenage obsession with it, so it’s perfectly apt to broaden out the metaphors) a book sequel must deliver all the things that made its predecessor great, while providing plenty of New. Some recent follow-ups I have reviewed do not manage this as well as does Revenge.

One of the ways to make a follow-up equal to or better than its predecessor is to bring different characters to the table, or to take a secondary or tertiary character and make them central to the story. Usually the Big Bad dies in this type of story, so that’s a good place to start. Is the Big Bad in Revenge more interesting or compelling than the one in PHB? Not for me. Nor is it any less so. But the Big Bad isn’t really the point here. It’s only the catalyst and obstacle for the continuing evolution of the core group of teens. Niall and Harper (who are continuing their relationship with a paranormal blood-tie twist), Pius, and Keith and Skidmark are all back, and in rather fine form. They all have familial problems to navigate and sense to make of previous events while also fighting the Big Bad and its minions. After all, as we all know, parents don’t take a pause in making their teenagers’ lives miserable just because they are engaged in a cosmic battle with the stakes no less than the survival of humankind.

Where Revenge shines brightest as a sequel is in increasing the role of a former tertiary character and bringing new characters into the fold. Characters that I really came to love. First, there is Sergeant Marie-Anne Tanguay. Her care for the kids, Quebecois slang, tender toughness, and street smarts in a small harbor town made me think of Sheriffs Jody Mills and Donna Hanscum from the CW series Supernatural. Tanguay is not only trying to protect the kids and keep secret what happened in Book One, she’s dealing with an array of shadowy government types and Russian agents. Watching her manage it all, despite the growing stakes, was, for me, the best part of Revenge.  

The new characters are Todd, a super-geek tech wiz who lives and does his experiments in a smelly basement in the early days of home computing, and Keenan and Anna—sort of like the Frog Brothers from The Lost Boys but in a velvet top hat and a one-size-too-tight corset, respectively. These two Vampire: The Masquerade–playing (which made D&D look tame to the Satanic-Panickers of the 1990s) supernatural sleuthing Goths are a highlight of the book and help to provide information and motivation to the Gale Harbour quintet, who are (understandably) disinclined to take on another set of cosmic monsters.

Speaking of, I vigorously applaud the author for making the implausible plausible just by having his characters talk about it so much (pay attention, writers of fantastical fiction). After all… yet another Big Bad from outer space in such a tiny, out-of-the-way town? The Gale Harbour quintet are far more reluctant to believe it than any reader is ever going to be. After all, we really want to, because “the willing suspense of disbelief” is what makes such fantastical storytelling work.

Like in PHB, Gallant-King provides us with a series of intermèdes, although they serve a different function in Revenge. Instead of giving us inner monologues from the Big Bad, they function like film flashbacks in a closely connected B story that figures prominently into the climax.

I mentioned that the title shouldn’t fool you. Even more so than in PHB, Revenge brings the heavy along with all its quirkiness and humor. For our hero Niall especially. Gallant-King makes brave choices as far as character outcomes to give the story a necessary gravitas. If you think about the genre films I listed in the opening paragraph, Death hovers over them like a spectre and it doesn’t care a bit about the fact that they’re only teenagers. Whatever doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger—especially when it kills someone to whom we are close.

Or if we are convinced that we’re the ones responsible.

So what are you waiting for… grab Revenge (it’s just come out on Amazon, etc.), take the ride, and let the author know we’d all love to see this quirky quintet return.