A dip into a subterranean world of monsters.

Our 12 year old hero, Rayleigh, lives in a poor part of London, where climate change has supposedly caused the government to impose and strictly enforced a 6 pm curfew to save energy. World energy supply is controlled by the sinister Volence. This is a well paced well imagined story. Rayleigh is quite lost in a rather scary world below the earth's surface but he has friends and relations to help him meet up with his long lost dad. He has to undergo training to see his suitability to be a monster. His uncle (the one with the horns) helps by explaining things to give us the more complete picture of the weird world Rayleigh is trying to understand. You are warned "don't get eaten". Rayleigh encounters just about every type of ghoul, shadow, beastie and monster you could possibly imagine, and several others besides (don't ever turn into a giant slug like thing). Great imagination! The period of induction and training will find just what type of "being" Rayleigh will become, maybe he will have wings, or horns, or be a fairy in a bulb emitting light for all eternity, or slimy. The never ending trials and trail that our hero undergoes will keep you turning the pages. Of course he will last at least until the end of the book - but in what form? Where? A few more tips from the story - Do not accept gifts from fairies - EVER. Trolls are OK, but mucking out the Bad Omen's cage is not recommended. It is quite a big book, 356 pages of smallish print, so good value in that sense, and also in brilliant scope and excitement.
My only niggle is the American spelling throughout. No doubt this is to cater for the USA market , but the book is set in London, and an English version would be best for here - or did someone just have their laptop on the wrong language setting...those monsters at work again!