Common Sense Media Review
By Michael Berry
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Devilish comic adventure in hell mixes physics, philosophy.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
Having saved the planet once from being overrun by the forces of Evil in The Gates, 13-year old Samuel Johnson and his trusty dog, Boswell, are kidnapped by the demon whose terrible plot they foiled. Along with two police officers, an ice cream van driver and a band of disreputable performing dwarves, Samuel and Boswell find themselves in Hell, where various factions of monsters want to be the first to present the boy to the Great Malevolence. Although aided by a Nurd, a demon he befriended in the earlier volume, Samuel must draw on his inner reserves to save himself and prevent another invasion of Earth by the minions of Hell.
Is It Any Good?
THE INFERNALS is a spirited follow-up to The Gates by John Connolly, author of the down-and-dirty Charlie Parker thrillers for adults. Although the author is Irish, Connolly's sense of humor is straight out of Monty Python's Flying Circus and should enthrall teen boys, especially. Cataclysmic events are presented with a delightful sense of the absurd, the supporting characters tend toward the dim but well-meaning, and authority -- even in the form of the Great Malevolence itself -- is tweaked for its presumptuousness. Connolly is well served by the skills he has developed in his detective novels, and he makes The Infernals a fast-paced and thoughtful entertainment, perfect for an adventurous younger audience.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how various religions portray the afterlife and whether heaven or hell is part of their cosmology.
In the novel, the portal to the underworld is created unwittingly by physicists at the Large Hadron Supercollider. Can scientific inquiry ever have unintended negative consequences?
Samuel meets a wide variety of personalities and creatures in his tour through hell. What are the kinds of characteristics that allow people to move forward in the face of great danger, disappointment, or suffering?
Samuel saved the world in the first volume of this series, but now his schoolmates and neighbors seem uneasy around him. Why are people uncomfortable with what they don't understand?
Book Details
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