An action-adventure story told from the perspective of Caleb-Hideki Smith, a Japanese-American teen who’s no good at anything requiring coordination so is the exact opposite of the American jock. The “I’m such a loser” narration voice is straight out of the “how to tame your dragon” series, particularly the first film.

This is a real page turner of a story and a few commutes to work just vanished in this story. What’s really nice is that it portrays a strong bond between Caleb and his elder sister as they, together, battle the Japanese monsters who have turned up in the hills just by their town. As well as battling monsters and learning about their powers, the siblings also have to contend with a Japanese mother determined to be 100% American (so has never taught them anything about Japan/Japanese culture) and various idiots at school who think everyone who’s not white must be cousins… This schoolboy racism is there but not the focus of the story. Unfortunately, the racist bullies haven’t yet had their comeuppance by the end which feels like a missed opportunity. There’s also a girl at school who uses the “they” pronoun - this adds nothing and feels like it’s been done to tick a diversity box.

An engaging read and I’ll look out for the next ones in the series. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and UCLan publishing for the advance reader copy.

I think overall this would be a good children’s/young adult book that teaches about learning your full identity and being true to yourself; but I would have still liked some more fleshing out of the characters, the world and also the culture.

We have a small town where a young Japanese American family live and by the mums design have no ties to their Japanese heritage. This obviously doesn’t stop small mindedness and racism towards the children. I would have also liked some consequences for the ignorant characters; mainly to teach that acting wrong leads to either a punishment or some change to the social structure.

The main characters Caleb and Emily are a great example of how siblings will have your back but still argue and disagree.

Overall an easy and quick read, but felt slightly rushed in the last chapter to set up a sequel.