Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town

4.5

Two Scots, an Englishwoman and an Aussie walk into the beginning of the apocalypse...sounds like a joke, but book two in the "Gap Year in Ghost Town" series, though filled with tongue-in-cheek humour, is anything but. I've never come across so many pop culture references in one novel - Supernatural, Doctor Who, The Good Place and Harry Potter, just to name a few. Our main character, Anton, is 19 and fulfilling the family duty of sending ghosts on to the afterlife with his friend, Rani. I appreciated that Pryor dropped the potential for them to be a couple and continued to grow their friendship instead. They drive around important sites in Melbourne and we are lucky enough to come along for the ride! I adore Pryor's writing style - it reads like a middle grade novel with young adult references and some adult humour and swearing. Plus he throws in a few comments about our government and the environmental situation, subtly showing his own views on the modern world. Perfect for upper high school. Beware lots of death and blood, though not described in gory detail. I believe this is a trilogy, so I wait in anticipation for the next instalment!