Review by Ian Keogh

New Scaremester sets the scene with three short stories introducing the cast. Fans will already know they began as a line of dolls before moving into video and comics. With over 750 dolls released since their 2010 introduction creators have a massive cast to choose from, although tend to stick closely to the classic models.

Squarely aimed at the young girls who buy the dolls, the Scaremester volume title reveals the habit of replacing words with spookier equivalents as befits a school for monsters. We have the creepateria, creative frighting and biteology. The tone of Hannah Templar and Siobhan Keenan’s opener is very much tales of overcoming adversity with persistence and help from friends, while Megan Brown and Bowen McCurdy deal with the ethics of a magic potion. Jacque Aye and Caroline Shuda’s story is even shorter, and a prelude to their producing the four chapters of the main event.

That begins with the Head Teacher threatened by a pair of cloaked figures and paying a price for refusing to betray Monster High. The new term, though, begins with a new set of rules enforcing the separation of monsters and humans with the emphasis on maintaining the secrecy of monsterkind. The rules are controversial and divisive. Coming to Monster High via young adult novels, Aye has a good handle on how to write a high school drama, infusing mystery, trauma and romance with secrets, friendship and rivalries. She’s particularly good in first supplying Cleo De Nile’s imposing and entitled personality, then her vulnerability.

Unlike other series, Shuda doesn’t have to bother with much preparatory work as the characters are already designed for her, but she brings them all to appealing life with clear and personality-driven art.

This is a slow release plot. After the prelude and the opening new regulations Aye concentrates on the characters, with the fearleader tryouts occupying an entire chapter. While the female characters predominate, the guys aren’t ignored, and it’s not until the final chapter that Aye again picks up on the bigger problems. It’s not only the Head Teacher missing, and by the end Frankie Stein’s made a discovery, which is the cliffhanger leading to New Scaremeister Volume 2.

Under Aye and Shuda the Monster High franchise is a massive improvement on the earlier graphic novel series. The plots and characters absorb and captivate, and the target audience ought to be really wowed. The book ends with a series of portraits and profile pages.