All These Warriors

Gr 8 Up–As the sequel to All These Monsters opens, Clara and her team are pulling out of London and taking a break in New York City to plot their next moves in the battle against alien scrabs. There is some division among the team as they try to decide whether to focus their efforts on hunting scrabs, tracking the corruption at the Monster Defense Group (MDG), or establishing a scrab cleanup brigade to mop up after scrab insurgencies have been nullified. The majority of the book centers on tension building over a possible showdown with the controlling boyfriend from the first book, while delighting readers in the posh lifestyle provided by crashing at a team member’s parents’ house. The boyfriend evolves into a stalker ex who constantly calls, texts, and emails Clara. He follows her from city to city, becoming more volatile as it becomes clear Clara now has eyes for another team member with whom she regularly shares a bed (note that sex is strictly implied, never discussed). Clara is biracial (her mom is Mexican and dad is white), and her mom’s backstory becomes significant in the final chapter when a scrab hunter media tour focuses heavily on Mexico and South America.