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Strange Forces #3
Strange Forces 3
Halloween is here.
The excitement level in Fairfield is at an all-time high. The town has been named the scariest place in the country, and the media has descended to see what happens on the creepiest night of the year.
Their timing couldn't have been worse.
Something's come to life in the field behind the oldest estate in town, Fairchild Manor. Something so incredible, it's wanted by the most powerful supernatural treasure hunters in the world. They're on their way to Fairfield to claim the prize and they'll stop anyone who gets in their way.
Especially Rilo Buru and his team of young adventurers.
Once again, this renegade monster has joined forces with the kids from Fairfield Junior High. Together, they battle the dark armies threatening their town. Possessing supernatural powers themselves, the kids think they can handle whatever creepy craziness arises in their town on All Hallow's Eve.
They're wrong!
Strange Forces are invading Fairfield in search of the power to turn the town inside out, and expose the area's darkest secrets to the entire world.
Can Rilo and the kids survive the night while defending Fairfield against its greatest threat?
All eyes are watching . . .
The excitement level in Fairfield is at an all-time high. The town has been named the scariest place in the country, and the media has descended to see what happens on the creepiest night of the year.
Their timing couldn't have been worse.
Something's come to life in the field behind the oldest estate in town, Fairchild Manor. Something so incredible, it's wanted by the most powerful supernatural treasure hunters in the world. They're on their way to Fairfield to claim the prize and they'll stop anyone who gets in their way.
Especially Rilo Buru and his team of young adventurers.
Once again, this renegade monster has joined forces with the kids from Fairfield Junior High. Together, they battle the dark armies threatening their town. Possessing supernatural powers themselves, the kids think they can handle whatever creepy craziness arises in their town on All Hallow's Eve.
They're wrong!
Strange Forces are invading Fairfield in search of the power to turn the town inside out, and expose the area's darkest secrets to the entire world.
Can Rilo and the kids survive the night while defending Fairfield against its greatest threat?
All eyes are watching . . .
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2012
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November 19, 2020
And now we finish our Strange Forces journey for now. And we ended it on a good note as this is my favorite one so far. Although note the rating is actually 3.5 and on the ever so slightly lower end since I grade on a curve with these.
This one is set on Halloween, which is cool but it annoys me that the regular series doesn't seem to have a Halloween book. Anyway, it is indeed the spookiest day of the year in Fairfield and the whole town is happy, except for our main group since Halloween has kind of lost its luster for obvious reasons. All these talks of supernatural happenings have stacked up and Fairfield is gaining fame as the "scariest town in the world", so the media is coming to Fairfield Manor on Halloween night for a special report. This is the group's main hangout so this is a big problem. At the same time, two new bad guys who are into collecting come to town while The Collector is also back for more.
And to add even more, new student Kim Ling finds all this supernatural talk interesting but doesn't buy it and pokes around the manor, only to get possessed by this weird force in this book's main McGuffin and she starts doing her stuff behind the scenes as things ramp up.
There's a fair bit going on in this one and I like that, makes the length feel earned. This different element mostly come together well, although there are some points where it takes a bit to ramp up. The stuff with the new villains feels like more of the same again, and they are the least interesting part. I did kind of enjoy them too, they are played more for laughs compared to the other villains and that was a bit different at least.
The Collector is in this less but he has his interesting moments, mainly with exploring his backstory a bit more, and especially a part near the end.
The reason this one was my favorite is that it had more character stuff with the main group. But first, it's weird that the new additions, Sara and Joel, from the last one weren't even mentioned here. I get Sara but Joel was kinda important in the end so it's weird he isn't brought up at all. At least that means even better balancing here and the only new addition, Kim, is handled well given she's all evil most of the time.
Anyway, the personalities feel a bit more defined this time and there's actual payoff for the bits that are setup. There's a thing with David and Donald that is so small I thought it wouldn't go anywhere but it did and that was cool. The main one is with Morgan, as balancing being a normal kid and fighting the supernatural has taken a toll on him by this point.
I suppose it's surface level compared to what other series have done, but for what this I thought it was handled pretty well and had a payoff in the form of this really nice scene with his parents. Yeah, that's not something I say often with these lol. It's nice to some form of reality in stuff like this. I also have really grown to like Rilu, there's some nice stuff on his end.
It mostly comes together well with the ending, even if similar stuff keeps happening with The Collector by the end. Also, I am so glad that upon looking it up, I found it Kim is indeed back in the 4th one as I feared she'd vanish like Joel did and she has the potential to be fleshed out more.
Now, there is one thing that really annoyed me and it's a carryover from the 2nd one: The typos. I think they are even worse this time and more frequent. It'd be hard to say them all, but we go "llocked" instead of "looked", "Franked" instead of Frank, and of course, worst of all, the wrong use of "You're" and "It's" at more than one point. Again, I hope this is just for this kindle version as while the books weren't by a huge publisher or anything, it would be weird to see mistakes like this in a published book.
Anyway, overall, Strange Forces 3 has all the solid lore and action I've come to expect, but it manages to have better character balancing, interesting new plot lines, and actually decent character stuff, even if is nothing super deep. Still, it's pretty solid. As I keep saying, I have access to the 4th one elsewhere so there's no limit on when I can do it. Thus, it could be a while, and I need a solid break from these longer ones lol.
On a side note, the 3 bullies that used to hang with Waylon from Doorway to Doom make an appearance and mention him and how he's gone soft. Jon and Albert from Creature Features appear although they referenced Under Wraps, the other book they were in. Really wish I could get a hold of that one, I assume it has no Patrick Star mummy though.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
This one is set on Halloween, which is cool but it annoys me that the regular series doesn't seem to have a Halloween book. Anyway, it is indeed the spookiest day of the year in Fairfield and the whole town is happy, except for our main group since Halloween has kind of lost its luster for obvious reasons. All these talks of supernatural happenings have stacked up and Fairfield is gaining fame as the "scariest town in the world", so the media is coming to Fairfield Manor on Halloween night for a special report. This is the group's main hangout so this is a big problem. At the same time, two new bad guys who are into collecting come to town while The Collector is also back for more.
And to add even more, new student Kim Ling finds all this supernatural talk interesting but doesn't buy it and pokes around the manor, only to get possessed by this weird force in this book's main McGuffin and she starts doing her stuff behind the scenes as things ramp up.
There's a fair bit going on in this one and I like that, makes the length feel earned. This different element mostly come together well, although there are some points where it takes a bit to ramp up. The stuff with the new villains feels like more of the same again, and they are the least interesting part. I did kind of enjoy them too, they are played more for laughs compared to the other villains and that was a bit different at least.
The Collector is in this less but he has his interesting moments, mainly with exploring his backstory a bit more, and especially a part near the end.
The reason this one was my favorite is that it had more character stuff with the main group. But first, it's weird that the new additions, Sara and Joel, from the last one weren't even mentioned here. I get Sara but Joel was kinda important in the end so it's weird he isn't brought up at all. At least that means even better balancing here and the only new addition, Kim, is handled well given she's all evil most of the time.
Anyway, the personalities feel a bit more defined this time and there's actual payoff for the bits that are setup. There's a thing with David and Donald that is so small I thought it wouldn't go anywhere but it did and that was cool. The main one is with Morgan, as balancing being a normal kid and fighting the supernatural has taken a toll on him by this point.
I suppose it's surface level compared to what other series have done, but for what this I thought it was handled pretty well and had a payoff in the form of this really nice scene with his parents. Yeah, that's not something I say often with these lol. It's nice to some form of reality in stuff like this. I also have really grown to like Rilu, there's some nice stuff on his end.
It mostly comes together well with the ending, even if similar stuff keeps happening with The Collector by the end. Also, I am so glad that upon looking it up, I found it Kim is indeed back in the 4th one as I feared she'd vanish like Joel did and she has the potential to be fleshed out more.
Now, there is one thing that really annoyed me and it's a carryover from the 2nd one: The typos. I think they are even worse this time and more frequent. It'd be hard to say them all, but we go "llocked" instead of "looked", "Franked" instead of Frank, and of course, worst of all, the wrong use of "You're" and "It's" at more than one point. Again, I hope this is just for this kindle version as while the books weren't by a huge publisher or anything, it would be weird to see mistakes like this in a published book.
Anyway, overall, Strange Forces 3 has all the solid lore and action I've come to expect, but it manages to have better character balancing, interesting new plot lines, and actually decent character stuff, even if is nothing super deep. Still, it's pretty solid. As I keep saying, I have access to the 4th one elsewhere so there's no limit on when I can do it. Thus, it could be a while, and I need a solid break from these longer ones lol.
On a side note, the 3 bullies that used to hang with Waylon from Doorway to Doom make an appearance and mention him and how he's gone soft. Jon and Albert from Creature Features appear although they referenced Under Wraps, the other book they were in. Really wish I could get a hold of that one, I assume it has no Patrick Star mummy though.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
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