Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death (Ronan Boyle Series #2)

by Thomas Lennon, John Hendrix (Illustrator)

Overview

The hilarious sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller, set in the world of law-breaking leprechauns, from actor and writer Thomas Lennon—now in paperback

Ronan Boyle may not be the strongest, or the smartest, or the best looking, or the most dexterous member of the secret Garda . . . So why was he picked to save the captain from the harpy who dragged her into Tir Na Nog? He’s not entirely sure. But he may be the captain’s only hope—if he can outrun cannibalistic elves, escape a job in a unicorn’s lounge act, and find the captain before she’s sacrificed to a cult. Eventually Ronan must battle the scariest monster of all: imposter syndrome. Fast-paced, action-packed, and utterly hilarious, the second book in the New York Times bestselling series delivers laughs and much, much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419747014
Publisher:	Amulet Paperbacks
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Series:	Ronan Boyle Series , #2
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	516,223
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Thomas Lennon is a writer, comedian, and actor who has worked on a number of things you probably love, including Reno 911! And Night at the Museum. Lennon lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Jenny Robertson, and their son, Oliver.

John Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator. His books include The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler, named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, and Drawing Is Magic: Discovering Yourself in a Sketchbook. His award-winning illustrations have appeared on book jackets and in newspapers and magazines. He is chair of the MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Hendrix lives in Webster Groves, Missouri.

Editorial Reviews

The Ronan Boyle books are ridiculously funny. Like, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett funny. I was laughing hysterically while reading them. My kids were laughing hysterically. My dog might have even been laughing hysterically while listening to us read it. (At least at the parts that involved dogs, of which there are a good number.). And in addition to being funny, the books are chock-full of adventure and excitement, with stereotype-defying werewolf, leprechauns and unicorns thrown in. They’re a tremendous joy to read from the first page to the last. Especially the part with the snakes.

New York Times bestselling author of the Spy Schoo Stuart Gibbs

". . .Enchanting descriptions of Tir Na Nog and its inhabitants will easily have readers suspending their disbelief and watching for book three."

Booklist

". . .Enchanting descriptions of Tir Na Nog and its inhabitants will easily have readers suspending their disbelief and watching for book three."

Booklist

2019-12-08
Following Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles (2019), the further zany adventures of an anxiety-prone 15-year-old member of the Garda Special Unit of Tir Na Nog, i.e., Irish faerie fighter.

Despite his incompetence, anxiety, and absolute lack of courage, young Ronan Boyle is off again to the enchanted side of Ireland, to capture Lord Desmond Dooley, the man who framed Boyle's parents for theft of an ancient mummy, the Bog Man, and to rescue his captain, who fell into Dooley's nefarious hands. Accompanied by the formidable Log MacDougall, a human raised by leprechauns, and an Irish wolfhound named Rí, he braves a wild variety of horrors, including a unicorn spa town, where he appears in a musical revue, and the titular Swamp of Certain Death. As in the first volume, the tale is snort-out-loud funny on the sentence level, but the plot, such as there is one, approximates the inside of Ronan's noggin: "a hamster on a Mobius strip, running frantic laps to nowhere." It's highly enjoyable to a point, and then the utter lack of cause and effect begins to wear readers down. One could skip any or all of 90% of the scenes in this book and never notice. As far as race goes, the unicorns come in all colors; Ronan is depicted as white on the cover.

Equal parts funny and fatiguing. (Fantasy. 8-14)

Kirkus Reviews