Del Toro Moon (2018)
Written By: Darby Karchut
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Pages: 246 (Trade Paperback)
Publisher: Owl Hollow Press
Disclaimer: Darby is a good friend and she sent me an ARC when I said I was interested in reviewing her newest book.
Why I Chose It: I loved Finn Finnegan and the Griffin series. And as soon as I heard Del Toro Moon took place in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and featured talking warhorses, I was sold.
The premise:
“Ride hard, swing hard, and take out as many of those creepy critters as you can.”
Twelve year old Matt Del Toro is the greenest greenhorn in his family’s centuries-old business: riding down and destroying wolf-like monsters, known as skinners. Now, with those creatures multiplying, both in number and ferocity, Matt must saddle up and match his father’s skills at monster whacking. Odds of doing that? Yeah, about a trillion to one. Because Matt’s father is the legendary Javier Del Toro—hunter, scholar, and a true caballero: a gentleman of the horse.
Luckily, Matt has twelve hundred pounds of backup in his best friend—El Cid, an Andalusian war stallion with the ability of human speech, more fighting savvy than a medieval knight, and a heart as big and steadfast as the Rocky Mountains.
Serious horse power. Those skinners don’t stand a chance.
No Spoilers!
Discussion: So I really love Darby’s books. Her characters and her stories speak to me the same way my favorite books from my childhood did. I loved Finn and I loved loved Griffin. But Matt del Toro is definitely my new favorite. He’s got to be the coolest twelve-year-old monster hunter ever with the most lovable dysfunctional family.
That is something I really appreciated in this book that I don’t see in a lot of middle grade and young adult novels right now. Yes, if it’s a book about kids, the kids need to be solving the problems and being heroic, but for some reason authors have decided that means kicking adults out of the stories entirely. And I think that’s harmful on a couple different levels. So I loved the respect Matt had for his dad and the support his dad made sure to give both his sons even when they didn’t always get along. Darby manages to portray a healthy, loving family all while they’re arguing and bashing the crap out of meat monsters. And Matt still gets to be the hero even around a dad, an older brother, an uncle, and several bossy warhorses who all know way more than him. A beautifully balanced feat.
And it’s a great story. There really wasn’t ever a moment when I didn’t want to know what happened next. Immediately. I think I finished this in six hours flat. The writing just kept pulling me along, and Matt’s voice was so much fun to read. Even when everything falls apart, he had an upbeat driving rhythm to his words that kept me going through tears.
The only thing I could possibly complain about (and I had to really dig for something) was the lack of explanation about the skinners. Where they came from, even what they actually were. I mean, it’s hard to sympathize with something that looks like a hamburger monster that’s trying to eat you and can kill you with one bite. So, it didn’t bother me too much that we don’t really know why they are the way they are. But the story about Matt’s ancestors coming over from Spain to fight monsters was just so vivid, I wanted the same depth for the things they were chasing. Still, I can definitely see an opening for another book or two. Maybe I’ll get some more in the future.
In Conclusion: This was such a fun ride. It’s one of those few books that I finish and immediately want to start again because I want to spend more time in the world. I want to be a caballero now too and could I be adopted into Matt’s family please? That would be great.
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