Early Book Review: Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter by Marcus Sedgwick, Thomas Taylor

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter by Marcus Sedgwick and Thomas Taylor is a graphic novel for middle grade readers which is currently scheduled for release on April 3 2018. Scarlett Hart, orphaned daughter of two legendary monster hunters, is determined to carry on in her parents’ footsteps—even if the Royal Academy for the Pursuit and Eradication of Zoological Eccentricities says she’s too young to fight perilous horrors. But whether it's creepy mummies or a horrid hound, Scarlett won’t back down, and with the help of her loyal butler and a lot of monster-mashing gadgets, she’s on the case. With her parent’s arch-rival, Count Stankovic, ratting her out to T.R.A.P.E.Z.E. and taking all the monster-catching rewards for himself, it’s getting hard for Scarlett to do what she was born to do. And when more monsters start mysteriously manifesting than ever before, Scarlett knows she has to get to the bottom of it and save the city whatever the danger!

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter had great potential, but I feel like it missed its mark. I was completely unimpressed by the art, but since i had a digital arc I am willing to give it a pass for the most part, because this sort of file never looks as good as the real thing. However, even with the allowances I give for galleys, I found the art to be a little lazy and sadly this carried through the character development. I found Scarlett to be very one dimensional and unlikable, and the big bad to be even less developed. The adventure part was okay, but I thought the character work was poor enough that I really could not care about what happened to anyone. The poor butler that does the majority of the work is not even given a name. I had so much hope for this, and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately I was not given the Buffy-eske heroine I wanted, rather I got a girl that more resembled her winy, incompetent sister. 

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter is not all I had hoped, but I can still see a market for it. 

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