KILLER PIZZA

Thinking he will have an opportunity to further his culinary skills, 14-year-old Toby McGill accepts a job at a local pizza shop. He soon discovers that the store is a front for an elite monster-fighting force and that he is the newest recruit. When people mysteriously disappear around town, Toby and his colleagues use their delivery disguises to hunt down the creatures responsible. Moving quickly into the half-baked premise, Taylor tops action scene with action scene, skimping on character development and relationship building. Frantic pacing forces readers to move forward, but more from weariness at the current scene rather than eagerness for the next. Nothing is left to the imagination; the elaborate descriptions of the “guttata monster” diminish its creepiness, and the teen behaviors are so wooden that the controlling hand of the writer is visible throughout the text. Lacking the gore and excitement of Darren Shan, Taylor’s soggy first novel is an unsatisfying mouthful. (Horror. 10-14)