prettylittlewriter

 A thrilling and fun ride from start to finish, John Scalzi has created an incredible novel full of laughs, impressive scenery and clever characters (and that's just the Kaiju!)

Synopsis
'When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.'
Thank you so much to Stephen from Black Crow PR for allowing me to participate in the blog tour for this brilliant book and for sending me an ARC copy to review!

I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs, but I must admit, I've never read a book about them, and didn't really know much about the Japanese Kaiju creations. However, because I love the Jurassic Park movies, I knew this would be something I'd enjoy!

I love that John has modernised the novel and kept it relevant; set during the prime of the Covid-19 pandemic, with some pop culture thrown in, both modern and retro, like the mention of Bella & Edward from Twilight, amongst other things. 

This book is full of snappy, hilarious conversations, which really draw you in to the story and allow you to bond with the characters in a way that happens effortlessly. 
From the get-go I liked Jamie, who didn't take any shit, especially when his boss fired him with no real reason, and he just seemed like a really genuine person (I feel like Jamie was a he, however, Scalzi never actually states the gender of our main character). 

The writing style is easy, and even when the characters are discussing scientific elements, it's not completely mind-boggling, which I often find can happen with sci-fi novels. Scalzi has written it in a way that even someone who has never read sci-fi before can feel comfortable with it and not intimidated by it. The novel is also quite short, which meant I got through it within a couple of days, and sometimes I can feel disappointed with a short novel, and left wanting more, but that definitely wasn't the case here.
The book is also rumoured to be being turned into a movie, which would be brilliant, so I'm looking forward to that!

I don't want to say too much about the storyline itself, as I don't want to spoil it, but what I will say is this; The Kaiju might be big and scary looking, but they aren't the real monsters within this story. 

5/5 stars