The Danger Gang by Tom Fletcher

 

 

Fresh from Strictly eviction, Tom Fletcher is yet another celeb turned children's author. But he's generally very good at it so I don't mind. The Christmasaurus series is fab. However, I do wonder how non-celeb children's authors who had to really slog their way through to publication feel about the celebrity-take-over of children's fiction. I imagine I'd be quite cross.

Anyway, the story in the Danger Gang is fun but there are plot holes so big that Thelma and Louise could evade the police in them. But, look, it's a kids book so lets pretend it's all perfectly fine.

All the kids in a class get affected by a weird storm and start getting super powers (? I'm not sure "powers" is the correct word, I mean one just keeps turning into a baby which isn't massively 'super'). One turns into a shark when he comes into contact with water. And one keeps turning into a massive hamster ... or was it guinea pig... I forget. Anyway it's difficult to really understand how these 'super' powers are going to help them investigate the mysterious shadows they keep seeing but, kids being kids, they decide they must. 

The format of the book doesn't really work either. Franky has just left his old home town to move to a new town and the book is written as monthly letters from the him to his best friend, Dani, in the old town. It works at first but when it gets to November, Dani comes to join them all on their adventures. And yet he still writes to her about what happened, saying what she did and all that sort of thing. It's very distracting and doesn't work at all. A diary format or something would have been else would have been much better.

It feels like it's set up for a series and if there are more I will read them because it was great, and silly, fun but I do really hope he abandons the letter format.

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