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After facing the terrors of Secrets of Dripping Fang Book One: The Onts, the way that Wally and Cheyenne Shluffmuffin easily walk out of the dangerous forest at the beginning of Book Two is a little surprising. Of course, this is merely the beginning, and life can't be easy for two ten-year-olds on the side of the road, at the edge of a mysterious forest.

The only place they can think of to go is also the worst, short of turning around and heading right back to the home of the Onts, Heady and Dagmar Mandible. The twins return to Jolly Days Orphanage, where the Onts come to retrieve them, and the headmistress, Hortense Jolly, is all too ready to betray the children for the adoption money. Who knew that Cincinnati could be so dangerous?

What follows is an adventure where the children become fugitives, hiding out wherever they can, sometimes barely surviving, as they try to stay ahead of the dangerous Onts. Along the way Dan Greenburg revisits colorful characters introduced in the first book, and introduces us to others. Hortense Jolly claims that she regularly adopts children out to giant bugs, wolves prove to be persistent creatures, and apparently falling to one's death in a porta-potty has strange consequences. Well, no surprise there!

This is a good continuation of the Secrets of Dripping Fang series. It's funny, gross, and surprising. While squeamish kids may want to steer clear of this series, those who love Halloween should really enjoy this one.

Based on the hints dropped at the end, the next volume, Secrets of Dripping Fang Book Three: The Curse of the Vampire, promises to be even weirder than the first two. The lives of the Shluffmuffin twins seem to be looking up, but something has got to go wrong. I'm curious to see what that is.

Jonathan Fesmire has travelled to France, Germany, Estonia, Finland, and Ireland. He enjoys speaking French and learning bits of other foreign languages, but most of all, he loves writing, and has sold fiction to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, SpaceWays Weekly, Jackhammer, and others.