Changing drug dealers was the start of it all.
Neil, Matt, and Sam are school friends who enjoy their pot
smoking. Well, Neil did until his dad got lung cancer and Neil realised it was
time to rethink certain things in life. Their dealer, Staubach, hangs around
with Noakes, who is affiliated with the hard local gang and Staubach is no
stranger to using violence to sort issues out. Sam decided to get some stash
from Sticky, another dealer, and when Staubach finds out, he decides to pay the
boys a visit. After a confrontation where Staubach believes he was humiliated,
the friends know they are marked.
Incidents happen at school that make them realise that they
are safe nowhere, which saddens Neil as he has finally mustered up the courage
to speak to Lindsey, a girl he has had a crush on for a while. Just being
around Neil might not be safe for her. As they contemplate how to deal with the
situation, Neil sees something that reminds him of a time when he was young and
saw what he believed was an imaginary figure. This being, a giant toad named
Frogmore, came through from another world once upon a time, and would do
anything to keep Neil’s friendship. Anything including killing.
An untimely death sparks a war between the friends and Staubach
and the gang that escalates into a frenzy of violence, retaliation, and
outright hate. To save the friends, Frogmore might be back, but doing things
his way. And his way, could mean disaster for everyone.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when reading this, which left
it open for me to just enjoy the story as it flowed. The violence is quite
graphic and it was a shock to see how the level was “acceptable” – not in the
book, but by the characters towards each other. I enjoyed the way the supernatural
element ran parallel to the main story in a very believable way. Very often too
much artistic licence is taken but in this, the reasoning behind it almost
seemed plausible!
I found the fact that the POVs from the “bad guys” was also
offered made for interesting reading. It gave you an insight into some of their
actions and also some of their regrets. Having Sam explain why he smoked as
much as he did, gave his character a deeper understanding instead of glossing
over the stoner image. Frogmore was quite a character to accept. His manipulation
of people and situations made you want to hate him but also in a macabre way
cheer him on. And the ultimate explanation of where he was from and the beings
there gave a new meaning to “we come in peace”.
The one thing that needed fixing on this script was the
formatting. It looked as though it had been set for print as there were page
numbers in the ToC and the drop caps were not aligned. Sometimes big spaces
cropped up in the middle of a page and the author’s name randomly appeared.
This was very offputting.
Ultimately though, I did enjoy this book as its premise was
not one I’ve read before. Yes, there were things that could have been added or
taken away, but as a read without thinking too hard about it, this was an interesting
one!
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.
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