Book Review #91: The First Invasion

The First Invasion: Book 1 by Zack Soto (200 pages)

I dig the zany magical realism vibes. For no reason at all, one of the characters has a humanoid cat uncle. Kaz and his (play)cousin Truly get into shenanigans when they go snooping around. Kaz has a disability that affects his sight, but it’s not his sole trait, though it does impact how he gets around during the adventurous bits. Truly has emotional issues surrounding her parents that cause her to act rudely.

The color scheme is a blueberry smoothie, and the art style has an unfinished 3 am cartoon on Adult Swim vibe, but it works. There are more realistic-looking characters and cartoony ones; like, a mixture of The Amazing World of Gumball. At times, character close-ups looked ugly (namely Truly, unfortunately), but the art style conveyed the story overall well. It shined with establishing shots/locations.

Once introductions and character motives are out of the way, the story becomes fast-paced almost to a break-your-neck speed. Random characters started spawning after the kids summoned the space knight, who I liked. I honestly got lost with the barrage of characters and fighting, but kids will probably enjoy the nonstop action and wacky villains.