Max Helsing And The Thirteenth Curse

Max Helsing: Monster Hunter #1

by Curtis Jobling

* "[A] gore-spattered, bone-crunching series opener." "Booklist," starred review
Max is just your average kid growing up in Gallows Hill, a small town outside of Boston well, except that he lives in a gothic mansion with an old former prizefighter, and his after-school job is carrying on the monster-hunting tradition of his family, the van Helsings.
Despite the bloody legacy he s inherited, Max always tries to be kind and fair to the ghouls, demons, and other creatures he encounters. So he s confused when monsters start attacking him willy-nilly even those he thought of as friends. Max discovers he s been cursed by an evil Warlock who intends to reclaim the earth for the monsters. To save his life, Max must rely on his gearhead friend Syd, his boy-genius neighbor Wing, and his brand-new puppy for help. But time is running out, and if they can t figure out how to break the Thirteenth Curse, Max and the world as we know it will be in deep, deep trouble
From the author of the Wereworld series!
Max, a hero in the vein of a young Indiana Jones, is more at ease facing demons than managing middle school, and his wisecracking attitude and quick thinking make for entertaining reading." "Publishers Weekly""

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Horror, Paranormal, Adventure, Young Adult, Mystery

336 pages, Library Binding

First published November 10, 2015

About the author

Curtis Jobling is an author and illustrator based in the UK. Working in publishing and animation he is possibly most (in)famously known as the designer of the BAFTA winning "Bob The Builder", as well as creator of CBeebies "Raa Raa the Noisy Lion" and CBBC's "Frankenstein’s Cat". Early work in animation included model and puppet painting on Wallace & Gromit’s "A Close Shave" and Tim Burton’s "Mars Attacks!" He’s also the creator/director/producer of Nickelodeon’s "Curious Cow" interstitials, a series of animated shorts featuring the varied and hilarious deaths of a bewildered bovine.

As a published author and illustrator of children’s books, Curtis’s works include Dinosaurs After Dark (with Jonathan Emmett), Skeleton in the Closet (with Alice Schertle), My Daddy, Cheeky Monkey and perhaps his most notorious character Frankenstein’s Cat, now an animated series in its own right commissioned by the BBC and sold to broadcasters worldwide.

The Wereworld series of novels were first published by Penguin in the UK in January 2011, with "Rise of the Wolf", the first in the fantasy horror, shortlisted for the Waterstone's Book Prize. Penguin/Viking first published the debut novel in September 2011.

Reviews

[Ema Mele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young adult městská fantasy plná ghúlů, upírů, jednoho pekelného psa a spousty humoru. Tohle mě fakt strašně moc bavilo překládat. Autor má teda sklony používat malinko rigidní větnou stavbu (blablablabla as blablabla, doing blablablabla), což v angličtině až tak nevadí - ale v češtině jsem se s tím docela zapotila. Jinak fakt dobrý. Hrdinům je okolo třinácti, takže doporučený věk čtenáře asi tak nějak. Já teda v té době četla rovnou Draculu, takže těmhletěm gothickým dětem to asi lze šoupnout i dříve. :)

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly closer to a 1.5.

I should have loved this book. It's a nice little concept of a monster hunter who, well, goes around and hunts monsters. It borrows heavily from existing tropes, it's part Buffy and part Dresden, it's like a good bad monster movie.

And yet.

For a book for kids, okay. I can see where there might be some appeal. What I don't get is why it's so poorly executed. Plotlines are dropped, language use is inconsistent, it tries to be too many things all at once and yet doesn't seem to succeed at any of them at all. On one hand, this should be a winning hand in any regard - the descendant of a great monster hunter dealing with growing up while still having responsibilities and duties to deal with, as well as the expectations that go along with the name and actions. It almost makes me want to try and write it myself. Instead, this just really doesn't work. With mostly action in a medium that lends itself to at least coherent plotting, this just doesn't work on many levels at all.

Be wary.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max Helsing doesn't really do anything of worth to add to his lineage, particularly in the book that all Helsings inherit. He doesn't seem to be very skilled, which wasn't all that fun to see. If he's been training for thirteen years I expected a little more skill, not just blind luck, compassion and friends helping.

What I did love: all the different monsters! Monsters are always fun, and Max meets a vampire, a ghoul, a warlock, and a half-goblin (among other things). Each of these encounters were the best parts of the book and those were the ones I got excited about.

Overall it was a decent read, albeit nothing that will stick in my head long. I'll pass it on to people more attuned to that reading level.

[Rennai · Rating 4 out of 5]

After just coming from a book where the monster hunter kills monsters without question and has almost a total lack of empathy, it was refreshing to read Max Helsing. Max (who turns 13 near the start of the story), is from a long line of monster hunters. He has been training all his life. He knows that not all monsters are bad (some live in his apartment building) so he gives all he encounters the chance to "go back home". Make no mistake though, he will dispatch those that don't heed his advice. He does this with part skill, part luck and ultimately, with the help of some endearing side kicks and other sympathetic characters. The prologue is quiet spooky and gets you in from the start but the "horror" element is lightened with Max's sense of humour. I think the book finds the right balance of scary monsters, life threatening situations, action, humour and humanity. Very suitable for upper primary and lower secondary students. I'm trying to get my son, who is a Percy Jackson devotee, to read it to give me his verdict. My four stars is based on the potential engagement and suitability for the target audience.

[Liz Friend · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story: Max Helsing is the last in the line of (Van) Helsings, famed monster hunters. He feels like he's got things down pretty well...but what Max doesn't realize is that a long-dormant curse is about to fall on the 13th descendant of Liesbeth Van Helsing on his/her 13th birthday. It's the 13th Curse--and it just so happens that Max is the 13th descendant. Oh well. How bad could it be? Max is about to find out.

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG-13; Violence PG-13; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse G; Magic & the occult PG-13; GLBT content G; adult themes (gory monster battles) PG; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: Max is a funny, snarky character, and there's plenty of action here to lure in anyone who likes monsters with a side of butt-kicking. A sure hit with boys!

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly loved this book and can not recommend it enough! I was a Percy Jackson kid so reading this now as an adult brought me back to the magical world of action middle grade books! I thought the book was perfectly paced as to always keep the plot interesting and had a good balance of plot twists and shifts in characters POV.

The book is funny, exciting, clever, and a new take on the "boy coming of age" story. I would highly recommend getting this book into the hands of middle school readers. The main character Max is the classic cool hero type but does not promote toxic manhood in any way, his best friend Syd is a girl of STEM and very important to the plot of the whole book, (no damsels in distress here!).

I am sad to see that this book has gotten some less than stellar reviews but I think that is because some readers expected this novel to live up to the classic"Vanhelsing" storeys that have become before it. Storys that were written a hundred years ago for adults. I am sad that this book has gotten poor reviews because some readers are rating based on what they WANTED to read instead of what they DID read.

If you like fun, action-packed, friendship-driven, middle-grade stories that are similar to Percy Jackson, Troll Hunters, or other graphic novels (there are some pictures in it!) I would highly recommend this to you.

I have loved this book as a young adult I can only imagine the joy it will bring to younger readers.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5 This was a great action romp with some creative touches to the monster hunting and a nice cast of characters. One thing that stood out immediately was the nod to diversity in casting the characters. Jed, Max's guardian and monster-hunting mentor, is African-American. Friend Syd is actually a girl, hispanic, and a wiz with mechanical and technical things. Younger tag-along, paranormal fan Wing is Chinese-American. The monsters and creatures were quite interesting, most things that the average kid will have heard of before but many having new, original characteristics. One of the most clever things about the book, something sure to appeal to young readers, are the "journal pages" that are featured. These are supposed to be taken from a family book called the Monstrosi Bestiarum that details each kind of monster with its strengths, weaknesses, and a drawing, along with notes from several generations of Van Helsing, including hip-sounding notes from Max himself. The story wraps up nicely but is an obvious series starter with the forces of evil defeated for the moment but still threatening to return. The book ends with a little teaser scene of what will be the beginning of that rise. Lots of fun and a series that I plan to continue.

[Jdtolbert2003yahoo.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max is a monster hunter. He tries to keep balance between the monster world and the human world. On his third birthday a curse made generations ago marks him as a monster hunter and causes even the most un-hostile monsters to attack him.

A trip to the undercity (a civilization for monsters) to discover the truth. Three days of running from every monster in town, good, bad or indifferent to stop a warlock and save the world. With the help of Wing, Syd and the annoying Archer Max might have enough luck to pull it off.

I enjoyed this story very much. Lots of humor. Fast paced. Likable characters. Definitely a must read. I can't wait to start on the next in the series.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seriously could not get used to this guy's writing style. He was trying too hard to make it light-hearted but at the same time impress upon the reader the seriousness of his curse or Mark. The storyline was pretty original and he left it open to the possibility of more books in the series, but I did struggle with actually wanting to read this novel to the end. The audience was middle school boys, but the middle school boys that I teach definitely wouldn't understand some of the intended humor.

[Mája · Rating 4 out of 5]

Až na pár chybiček v textu a chybějící odstavec na straně *teď si nemůžu vzpomenout* moc fajn překlad. Maxoco dobrodružství mě chytlo. I když jsem měla trochu problém se oprostit od svého věčného hnidopišského pitvání, kterým trýzním všechna díla. Ale myslím si, že moje desetileté já by to fakt žralo, takže 4*

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was dark in places, action packed and raced along. Max is a brilliant character and I very much liked how he at a young age he is so dedicated to his calling and stops at nothing to battle the forces of evil to the very end! I am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

[Lee Willie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real fun page turner

This reminded me of reading the first Percey Jackson novel for the first time, exciting, great characters and a clever twist on old legends.
Really looking forward to going straight onto the next one

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Name that Book 2017-18/Lonestar 2017-18. A little choppy in the writing. Not really that original in the plot. I didn't find the character original enough to make me want to read any more of the series.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zombie lovers, eat your heart out!

This just wasn't my cup of tea. =)

[Chari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure a middle age boy would find this book amusing, I however, did not!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Largely unremarkable. Recommended for middle grades 4-6, and really too young for the Lonestar List.

[P.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was all right - nothing breath-taking.

[Juan V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was really good but it had to much action. If you don't like too much action don't read it.

[Katherine Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Buffy the Vampire slayer, but with a middle school boy protagonist. Plenty of snark and gore. Surprisingly rich and vibrant vocabulary.

[Nova Syzygy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading this last year, and not enjoying it that much. I also can barely remember anything except for a vault, some weird creatures that sit on fences, and a green vampire.

[Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but definitely for a younger audience

[Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Walden Woods of Horror. Due to it not being listed in Goodreads, I'm using the Thirteenth Curse for review purposes.
Max Helsing is a good story but can be improved by adding more interesting encounters and tipping the balance more towards his monster side rather than his social life side. Also, sometimes I didn't feel immersed in the story because the hooks and the story weren't as adventurous as I thought it would be. There was too much description of the daily mundane.
Anyway, I gave it 3 stars because of the detail and transitions of the paragraphs in the book and it's entertaining for a middle school student.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging Characters and Witty Banter Carry the Day

This is a monster hunting story starring a Van Helsing descendant, so it's quite natural to expect a monster slaying quest. Well, that's not entirely wrong, but it's not exactly right either.

MILD BUT OBVIOUS PLOT SUMMARY SPOILERS. The plot does involve monster hunting, and it's actually pretty standard. Max Helsing carries on the family monster hunting tradition. When he turns thirteen he is "marked" for death and suddenly is every monster's number one target. At the same time an ancient foe returns and leads the assault on Max. He has to survive and defeat the villain or darkness will cover the world. O.K. There's not a word in that summary that you haven't seen time and again. So why is this book so attractive?

Well, first off Max is a kinder/gentler monster hunter who tries to encourage monsters to just go back home. This is a interesting angle and makes most of the monster confrontations interesting instead of just gore fests. I figured this would be a bloody slasher book, like, say, Rick Yancey's "Monstrumologist", but it's actually sort of the opposite. There are a lot of action sequences and fights and flights and escapes, but they are accompanied by often quite funny observations and throwaway lines. So think of Max as a monster hunter whose superpower is, in part, being a smartmouth.

Even better, Max has an excellent posse. While Max favors wisecracks and jokey monster interactions, his best gal pal, Syd, is the cool, arched-eyebrow type in the mold of a YA Mrs. Peel, (of "The Avengers"). She gets as many good lines as does Max, she's perfectly able to go kick-butt, and the book always picks up a little more energy when she's on the page. The third wheel is Wing Liu, the wide-eyed kid genius neighbor of Max's, who just knows in his heart that monsters must be real. Once he's brought on board, rather than being played as precocious, he's played as a deadpan unflappable danger junkie, which is a nice twist and adds a loose cannon element to the mix.

Once you get these three together you add a Yoda style guardian for Max, and a creepy over-the-top monologuing villain who seems so bored by being an ancient villain that he has to amuse himself with funny one-liners. (At one point he accuses a good guy of trying to kill him "ironically". I'm sorry, I think that's pretty sharp for this kind of book.) Then add a crew of well crafted secondary characters, (mostly monsters and elementals), who help Max on his quest-adventure-battle-thing. Oh, and add a cuddly hellhound puppy just because, hey, why not?

The upshot is action, humor, appealing heroes, and a brisk satisfying entertainment with a minimum of gore and a medium ick factor. What's not to like? The book is well written and well, and briskly, plotted. A lot of attention is paid to little details and small throwaway bits that add a lot of depth and color to the story without dragging on. The action screams by and everything falls into place nicely. Jobling does an excellent job of scene setting and moves the characters around effortlessly. I was very impressed, and I was honestly happy to see that the ending left the door open for more adventures.

(Please note that I found this book while browsing the local library without a chaperone. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Marlana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read about things that go bump in the night.

Vampires, ghouls, zombies, werewolves, and what have you are the types of things that give me nightmares. Most of my reading material is light and fluffy. The type of stuff you would feel comfortable reading to your young child at bedtime and I like it that way.

However, there was something about Max Helsing that drew me in. Maybe it's the parallels with my teenage obsession, Buffy. Maybe it's the fact that Max Helsing is a descendant of Van Helsing, who I have always been fascinated with. Maybe it's just Curtis Jobling's immaculate writing and attention to detail.

Either way I was drawn in and I have no regrets because Max Helsing and the Thirteenth Curse is one of my favorite reads so far this year. The one liners, the monsters, the characters, and the plot itself will keep you coming back for more and more even if you are a big ol' scaredy cat like myself.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Descended from a long line of monster hunters, Max Helsing does a pretty good job of being an ordinary kid by day and keeping his town safe from demons, ghouls and the occasional mummy by night. That is, until he turns thirteen and discovers he's been cursed by an ancient vampire who wants him dead at any cost.

This book had a good enough premise, and a nice character in Max, who is engaging, a little snarky, but even tempered and happy to adopt a monster pet dog. Of course he ends up at the centre of an ancient curse and must save the world from the forces of darkness. That is to be expected in a book that reads like Buffy for mid grade children - especially boys.

There was plenty of humour. It was very in-your-face humour, but I think children will love it, not least because it gets quite graphic at times. The book is interspersed with well presented pages from Max's monster compendium.

Nevertheless, I was not engrossed by the story. It reworked many tropes but had nothing new about it. The writing was good, but pacing was a little off, I felt. I never felt I just had to finish this book, and thus took my time over it (one of many concurrent reads).

I won't bother with the sequels, nor would I recommend it to adult readers, although the intended audience will enjoy it.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely feel like the book has a strong premise, but also like it was lacking in a lot of ways. The writing felt in consistent, both in dialog and out. Sometimes the characters spoke like what seemed would be normal for them, but then would deliver a line that was unusually proper or southern country, despite it taking place in a new england state. There is a lot of action, which was great. But the writing for the action scenes felt busy, and were sometimes hard to follow, making them a little boring. Probably a result of getting overly descriptive. I thought the journal entries were cool, and Max's little additions were cute. I feel like there was not a lot of build up to the conflict here and that made it difficult for me to continue reading at some points. The book is dark, and can be unnecessarily graphic at certain small points, so I wouldn't recommend it for any kids under 11 or 12. Still, I think it would be enjoyable for the group it was meant to serve and would probably recommend it to anyone looking for something to do with monster fighting.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Helsing is the last in the line of the famous Van Helsing monster hunters. Something strange happens on his thirteenth birthday, every monster he encounters is rabidly bent on his death and destruction. Max navigates his adventures relying on his mentor Jed and his friends Syd and Wing. Together they handle any gruesome and hairy situation that Max finds himself entangled in. But when an old mysterious Warlock comes to town waging destruction and calling for Max’s death, will they be able to save the day and Max once again? Readers of all ages will find the characters and dialogue funny and engaging; Middle School Readers 10-14. Author, Curtis Jobling has another series – Wereworld and is behind the children’s tv show Bob the Builder.

[Frankie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great book because it tells the world as if it was different. In a way where the world had monsters and some people protect others from the vicious monsters. Max the protagonist tries to save his town from evil and the under city. He turns 13 when bad things start to happen. He is bombarded with monsters and monster-lords. His friends are captured and he is the hero. He tries to save people from monsters but now he has to save himself. When this is over he learns a lot about the surface and the underground.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Helsing, a monster hunter from a long line of monster hunters, turns thirteen and suddenly it seems like it's hunting season - and he's the prey! The book puts a new slant on recognisable monsters and introduces many more. It's an exciting middle grade read and I'm looking forward to seeing how Max's character develops in later books. I loved Syd, Max's best friend, so good to see a strong female character who's in charge of the technical, engineering stuff and definitely no shrinking violet - girl power indeed!

[Pamela Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous middle grade fantasy adventure. Read the whole review at Max Helsing and the Thirteenth Curse