Killer Pizza

June 15, 2009
In screenwriter Taylor's entertaining, if ephemeral, debut novel and B-movie takeoff, 14-year-old Toby Magill gets a summer job at the new Killer Pizza franchise in town (specialties include the “Fangtastic Hawaiian” and “Vampire Stakes”), where he hopes to hone his own cooking skills to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous chef. After a few enjoyable weeks, he and his fellow employees, the intelligent Annabel and the gruff Strobe, learn that Killer Pizza is a front for a secret organization that hunts monsters. The teens soon embark on a training course to become Monster Combat Officers, learning the ways of the strange creatures known as guttatas that are terrorizing their small town. Taylor keeps the action coming at a brisk pace, though there's never a real sense of true danger—even the teens mutated by the guttatas in the opening scenes are rescued. Older readers might question some plot holes (not to mention the idea of recruiting young kids to fight monsters), but most will find the book a fun diversion. Ages 10–14.

September 1, 2009
Gr 5-8-Taylor delivers some fun, frightful fare in this high-concept debut novel. Fourteen-year-old Toby Magill, a closeted Food Network junkie, gets a summer job flipping dough at Killer Pizza. Hoping to learn some cooking skills, Toby is optimistic about his new position, and he instantly bonds with his two coworkers. However, the teens soon discover that the establishment is actually a front for a secret monster-hunting organization, and they are the newest recruits. Their focus shifts from making pizza to weapons training and stakeouts as they try to uncover the leader of a pack of grotesque monsters that can transform into human shape and are preying on innocent people. Clearly, this is not the job for which Toby applied. Always the underdog, he has to muster up the courage to take on these frightening creatures. The descriptions are creepy, but never over-the-edge gory. The author's screenwriting background is evident in the plotting of the nonstop action sequences that lead up to the satisfying conclusion. A delectable choice for horror fans as well as reluctant readers."Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Grades 5-8 Screenwriter Taylors first novel seems birthed from an idle thought about pairing pizza making and zombie hunting, a weird mix that actually doesnt play off in as dissonant a manner as one might expect. Toby gets his first summer job making pies at the brand-new Killer Pizza. What he soon learns is that the chain is a front for a secret underground organization dedicated to battling the monsters hiding among the general populace (and, oh yeah, monsters hide among the general populace). A group of guttata (sort of shape-shifting zombies imbued with various ill-fitting powers and convenient weaknesses that make them perfect targets for young monster-hunters) threatens the unwitting citizens, and its up to Toby and his fellow initiates to train relentlessly and take out the beasts. Tobys transformation from a confidence-light loser to heroic day saver is handled less smoothly than the cinematic and sometimes genuinely scary scenes of guttata bashing. Overdramatic and totally ridiculous, yes, but done in a way that perfectly complements the cheesy horror.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
Fourteen-year-old Toby isn't looking forward to another boring summer in Hidden Hills. He gets more than he bargained for, though, after landing a pizza-joint job and being recruited into the secret monster-hunting organization behind Killer Pizza. Though the characters are underdeveloped, their attempts to save Hidden Hills from vicious shape-shifting guttata monsters are humorously portrayed.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)