More unnerving, nightmarish fare.
In this sequel to Book of Screams (2023), a girl tries to save herself from a vial of cursed ink.
Tanya thinks she’s dispatched author Joel Southland, who was using the ink to steal readers’ nightmares for his stories. Now in possession of a vial of the ink, Tanya struggles to control it long enough to figure out how to rid herself of it. But the ink has a mind of its own, and Tanya finds herself stealing people’s dreams despite herself. Tanya and her former friend Niah head to the well that is the ink’s source—a decision that might turn out to be a huge mistake. The nightmares that Tanya’s collected and typed up—and which are interspersed throughout the book—will put many people at risk if they end up getting published. In the stories, everyday interactions between students, teachers, and parents become fraught with monstrous danger. Already uncomfortable settings such as a graveyard and a dentist’s office reveal their true horrifying natures, and ordinary objects such as pencils and teddy bears take on malignant intent. Ominous illustrations enhance the creep factor but are sometimes abstracted to a degree that may be less enticing for younger readers. Some tales are convoluted or slow-moving compared with those in the first volume. Still, readers will be suitably disturbed. In the artwork, Tanya presents white, while Niah is Black; some diversity among background characters is indicated through names.
More unnerving, nightmarish fare. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781459838017
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Delightfully disconcerting.
A tween befriends a mysterious changeling.
Casey Wilson hasn’t had many friends since the fabled sixth grade “Zoom Incident,” when a bully recorded his anxious tics and posted them online. But one day, after a mysterious phone call, a new friend arrives in a burlap bag. From the beginning, it’s clear this child (whose name is Morel) isn’t quite human; he has a claylike body and doesn’t eat or sleep. Casey’s gut sounds the alarm, but since his parents are unfazed, he rolls with the child’s appearance, too. The two kids start to connect over drawing, video games, and anime, but their similarities turn sinister as Morel slowly molds himself into Casey—voice and all. As Casey’s memories start to feel “far away,” his family begins to confuse him with Morel. Worse, they seem to prefer Morel over him. By the time Casey realizes what’s happening, it may be too late to get his life back. Horror veteran Tremblay draws on personal experience as an educator in his chilling middle-grade debut set in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The third-person perspective enhances the suspense; even readers who figure out what’s going on will find it terrifying to observe Casey’s growing realization of what’s happening to his family. Connelly’s occasional full-page black-and-white illustrations add ambience, and some will surely fuel readers’ nightmares. Casey and his family present white. Casey’s diagnoses include transient tic disorder, slow executive functioning, and anxiety.
Delightfully disconcerting. (author’s note) (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780063396357
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map.
A girl who delights in the macabre harnesses her inherited supernatural ability.
It’s not just her stark white hair that makes 11-year-old Zee Puckett stand out in nowheresville Knobb’s Ferry. She’s a storyteller, a Mary Shelley fangirl, and is being raised by her 21-year-old high school dropout sister while their father looks for work upstate (cue the wayward glances from the affluent demography). Don’t pity her, because Zee doesn’t acquiesce to snobbery, bullying, or pretty much anything that confronts her. But a dog with bleeding eyes in a cemetery gives her pause—momentarily—because the beast is just the tip of the wicked that has this way come to town. Time to get some help from ghosts. The creepy supernatural current continues throughout, intermingled with very real forays into bullying (Zee won’t stand for it or for the notion that good girls need to act nice), body positivity, socio-economic status and social hierarchy, and mental health. This debut from a promising writer involves a navigation of caste systems, self-esteem, and villainy that exists in an interesting world with intriguing characters, but they receive a flat, two-dimensional treatment that ultimately makes the book feel like one is learning a ho-hum lesson in morality. Zee is presumably White (as is her rich-girl nemesis–cum-comrade, Nellie). Her best friend, Elijah, is cued as Black. Warning: this just might spur frenzied requests for Frankenstein.
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map. (Supernatural. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304460-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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