WATCH HOLLOW

A family becomes the new cogs in the clockwork of an old house’s dark, alchemical history.

Still grieving their mother’s death, siblings Lucy, 11, and Oliver, 13, are having a rough go at life. Lucy picks fights at school, and Oliver is bullied by classmates for being low-income. Things start to look up when an elderly, black-clad Englishman hires the pair’s “clocksmith extraordinaire” father, advancing him $12,000 in gold coins. The job temporarily relocates the family to an isolated residence known as the Blackford House to repair its unconventional cuckoo clock. At midnight, a few of the animal figurines that live in the clock come to life and choose Lucy as their caretaker. Soon, the whole family winds up in a race against time to stop an evil monster known as the Garr from enveloping the house in the forest it controls. Funaro carefully lays clues to help readers solve the mystery surrounding the house, while the love-conquers-all message keeps the terror at a (mostly) safe distance. The cliffhanger ending paves the way for the book’s planned sequel. The cast is presumed white by default.

A well-wound tale of good versus evil.