A SCOUT IS BRAVE

A young boy uncovers secrets and conspiracies in a small Massachusetts town with his new best friend in Ludwigsen’s coming-of-age horror novel.

The down-on-their-luck Castillo family leaps at the opportunity to move from Queens to a seaside New England town rent-free while the father, Ted Castillo, works to set up an off-shore oil rig. Bud Castillo, the family’s 13-year-old son (and the book’s narrator) is more than happy to tag along after a mysterious incident leaves him ostracized by his Boy Scout troop. Massachusetts promises a fresh start: a new school, new friends, and new scout troop. Unfortunately, when Bud and his family arrive at their new home, they discover a town in a state of total decay, with only one other child roaming around. This child, Aubrey Marsh, quickly befriends Bud; the two decide to form a scout troop together (with the support of Bud’s mother) and investigate the town’s dark past. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that something strange is afoot in the Lovecraft-inspired town of Innsmouth—after all, as Bud’s mother astutely asks, has anyone “ever heard of oil in Massachusetts?” Ludwigsen does an excellent job building tension and a conspiratorial atmosphere as Bud and Aubrey try to uncover what’s really going on in Innsmouth and determine what lurks just off the coast. With an eclectic array of townsfolk, anchored by the charismatic and frightening Reverend Pritchett, who runs the outwardly progressive (but also kind of cultlike) local church, the author slowly lays out the pieces of a compelling mystery. This mystery starts to fall apart by the final third of the book, however; in the narrative’s earlier sections, Ludwigsen mesmerizes with a distinct narrative voice, but events unfold rather abruptly as the climax nears. It’s an excellent set-up with a disappointing pay-off.

A smart send-up of Lovecraftian horror that doesn’t quite stick the landing.