Review by JOSIAH JONES
Have you ever read a sequel that felt jarringly different from the original? That's Frankenturkey II.
Kyle and Annie Duggan are still the main characters, but nine-year-old Annie takes the lead this time. Jake Wilbanks, who bullied Kyle in Frankenturkey, has become his friend in the past year, and perhaps he's a negative influence; Kyle is often mean and sarcastic now, and it grates on his little sister's nerves. Annie's heart is heavy as Thanksgiving approaches this year. Her pet turkey, Gobble-de-gook, was hit by a car six months ago and died. He was sweet-tempered, nothing like the raging, violent Frankenturkey that Kyle and Annie accidentally brought to life, and Annie misses him.
At least Frankenturkey is no longer a problem; the Duggans ate him a year ago, and only his wishbone remains. The trouble starts when Annie and Kyle pull the wishbone apart and Annie wishes that Gobble-de-gook were still alive. She doesn't expect it to come true, but that night she looks out her bedroom window and spots a turkey strutting in the shadows. Is her beloved pet back from the grave?
Joy morphs into revulsion when Annie sees Gobble-de-gook up close. His hollow eye sockets are full of maggots and one wing is barely attached by a string of bloody flesh. Annie feels sick; this isn't what she wanted at all. Kyle and Jake can hardly believe their eyes, and it gets weirder as the bird shows signs of miraculous healing, looking less zombielike by the hour. Surprised, Annie realizes her unspoken wish for his healing must have worked; will her wishes be granted on an ongoing basis? Reuniting with Gobble-de-gook is turning out to be a good thing...until a sleepwalking Annie is coerced to insert Frankenturkey's broken wishbone into the bird's chest. Gobble-de-gook's resurrection is about to take a sinister turn.
The turkey waddling around the Duggans' outdoor pen looks like Gobble-de-gook, but no longer acts like him. By his sly, aggressive behavior Annie recognizes the reincarnated Frankenturkey. Somehow, breaking the wishbone reanimated his consciousness, allowing him to possess Gobble-de-gook's body. Frankenturkey is more powerful than ever; he heavily influences Kyle and Jake's thoughts, and does the same to Mr. and Mrs. Duggan. Annie is the only one he seems unable to manipulate.
To her horror, under Frankenturkey's control her parents decide to fatten up Kyle as the main meal this Thanksgiving, and her brother casually agrees to the plan. Will he be murdered by his own axe-wielding father? Not if Annie can help it, but defeating Frankenturkey will be much harder this time. What edge can she exploit in her struggle with the body-snatching bird?
Frankenturkey II is superior to the original book by leaps and bounds. Some of the narrative logic is tenuous, but nothing like the absurdities that defined Frankenturkey. The story is gorier than usual for the Bone Chillers series, but this adds something to the sensory experience, gross as it occasionally gets. The wish-making concept is clever and fresh; I didn't anticipate the direction it was headed early on, and was fairly impressed once I figured it out. Readers who were turned off by the first book's implausibilities may find this one a welcome change. Frankenturkey is the marquee villain of Betsy Haynes's Bone Chillers, and this sequel gives him a story worthy of that distinction.
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JOSIAH JONES is an avid writer who has loved books for as long as he has been able to read them. Among his favorite authors are Louisa May Alcott, Rachel Field, Joseph Krumgold, Irene Hunt, E. L. Konigsburg, Katherine Paterson, Barbara Park, Jerry Spinelli, Edward Packard, R. L. Stine, and Neal Shusterman. In addition to writing and reviewing, Josiah has been a competitive juggler on the international stage, traveling as far as the United Kingdom and Canada. He is a free speech absolutist and a passionate fan of classic television and almost every variety of sport, from the popular to the obscure.
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