Halloween is coming up, and I’ve been at it with the spooky reads, so I wanted to share some that I’ve enjoyed with you all.
For me, Halloween definitely means spooky. Middle grade Halloween means slightly less spooky. Just enough to send shivers down your spine, but not enough to seriously impact your sleep. So if you’re a chicken when it comes to horror, fear not! These books are more upper middle grade horror. A bit more than I’d recommend for younger MG readers, but not quite graphic enough to land them in YA territory.
No Place for Monsters
by Kory MerrittPublished by: HMH Books for Young Readers on September 15, 2020
Genres: Middle Grade, Horror
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Levi and Kat are about to discover a very dark side to their neighborhood. Nothing ever seems out of place in the safe, suburban town of Cowslip Grove. Lawns are neatly mowed, sidewalks are tidy, and the sounds of ice cream trucks fill the air. But now.... kids have been going missing - except no one even realizes it, because no one remembers them. Not their friends. Not their teachers. Not even their families.
But Levi and Kat do remember, and suddenly only they can see why everyone is in terrible danger when the night air rolls in. Now it is up to Levi and Kat to fight it and save the missing kids before it swallows the town whole.
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- A book that’s part text, part graphic novel.
- Cute, quirky artwork that sets a scene.
- A dark, creepy atmosphere established.
- An adorable friendship between outcasts.
- Lots of fun, unexpected monsters.
Many thanks to NetGalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for a review copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Images are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.
The cover definitely caught my eye on this one, and I knew I had to read it. I’ve really been enjoying this trend of half-written, half-graphic novels lately, and this is no exception. The art style is super cute, but not too cute, walking a nice balance of feeling creepy but also nice to look at.
No Place for Monsters is half-written, half-graphic novel, and all spooky mystery. There’s a lot of creepy happenings in the small town of Cowslip Grove, but not all the monsters are terrifying!
I had a lot of fun with this one! My biggest complaint was that the ending was a bit too sudden and convenient, especially after the struggle through pretty much the whole book. It felt a little too clean, considering.
The artwork in this book is charmingly creepy and works really well to establish a foreboding atmosphere.
The combination of words and art worked perfectly in this book. It was a quicker read than I expected because of it, but it definitely set a tangibly creepy atmosphere. Merritt does a fabulous job of matching the illustrations to the story in a way that just enhanced both.
The pictures aren’t always highly detailed and elaborate, but Merritt knows when to use shadows, silhouettes, and vagueness to create an eerie effect.
There are so many examples of this that I really enjoyed, but if we’re honest, those are spooky things in and of themselves, right? It manages to be scary without being too graphic when bad things happen (and I assure you, bad things happen).
The friendship between Levi and Kat is sweet and fun, and I loved seeing them team up.
Both are outsiders in their little town; Kat because of her reputation for being weird and Levi because he’s new in town. Kat is a fierce unto her own, though, and Levi gets swept up in the whirlwind that is her aura. Together, they have to unravel the conspiracy going on in their small town.
Kat’s personality itself is larger than life: the slightly out there kid who believes in the paranormal and conspiracy theories and is a little too loud and outspoken for the adults’ comfort. Which is the perfect person to pair with quiet, introverted Levi.
I loved the way their dynamic worked, playing off of each other. They each bring their own strength to the story, and they each have to grow and figure out what’s really important to them.
Be prepared to meet a cast of fun, quirky monsters that aren’t exactly what you’d call cute, but they might surprise you anyway.
Like a Chupacabra! Those are always fun, yes? Merritt’s imagining of the creature isn’t exactly the sort you’d want to cuddle and take home as a pet (or so I’ve been told by my husband, though he’s clearly mistaken).
The monsters in this book are sufficiently scary, without being too scary. They won’t give you nightmares, per se, but you definitely wouldn’t want to meet one in a dark alley.
I particularly enjoyed the use of different fonts to portray different creatures talking. It made it easy for me to picture different voices for each character. Plus, each creature has different speech patterns and personalities, which really brought them to life and made meeting new creatures fun.
Pleasant Grove
by Jason PricePublished by: Self-Published on June 29, 2020
Genres: Middle Grade, Horror, Science Fiction
Pages: 385
Format: eARC
Source: Author
Welcome to Pleasant Grove, a quiet small town where neighbor helps neighbor and doors are left unlocked at night-an unspoiled paradise with one peculiar feature: It's enclosed by a glass dome.
No one can leave. No one can enter. No one can survive beyond the dome.
But then, a visitor arrives from the outside.
When 12-year-old Agnes Goodwin discovers a strange boy with no memory, she teams up with her best friends to unravel the mystery. Their extraordinary adventure will threaten everything they know...and everyone they love.
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- Dystopian, post-apocalyptic setting in a dome.
- A compelling mystery to solve.
- Capable, go-getter kids that will answer their own questions, thank you very much.
- Sci-fi blended with horror.
- Danger in the unknown (including beasties).
- Sibling bonds and squad vibes.
Many thanks to the author for a review copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
I’m a big sucker for apocalyptic books. I’m always a little hesitant going into dystopian stuck-in-a-dome books, because I feel like I’ve been burned as many times as I’ve found books I enjoy, but boy am I glad I picked this one up, despite any misgivings!
Pleasant Grove blends horror and sci-fi with a dystopian world full of mystery and secrets, with young, inquisitive minds that want to know all the wrong things for all the right reasons. They just might not like the answers they find, though.
This was a fairly quick read, a little slow to get started but once it was underway, I didn’t want to put it down. The ending is a bit open, but in a way that feels perfectly like older style horror, where it feels like the real nightmare might just be beginning (which is a style I enjoy). It feels nicely wrapped up, but I also wouldn’t be opposed to another book in this world!
Pleasant Grove will be free on Amazon from October 26, 2020 to October 30, 2020, if you want to snag your own copy just in time for Halloween!
Price takes old, well-known tropes and twists them in fun, new ways.
The basic tropes of this will likely feel familiar: trapped in a dome, secret catastrophic disaster that makes outside uninhabitable, adults keeping secrets, monsters lurking in the dark. None of these in and of themselves are particularly unique, but the way they’re shaped and put together was something different and interesting.
Tropes are tropes for a reason: readers enjoy this particular idea. Rather than being stale and overused, Price gives common sci-fi tropes a new life.
Monsters in the dark is one of my favorite tropes of all time, so I was super excited in the way this develops and how it ends up!
This book really plays on the fear of the unknown, which is always an effective horror tactic, in my opinion.
This is slightly more effective due to the fact that, for the characters (and, in a lot of ways, the reader too), pretty much everything is unknown except for the safe little bubble these characters live in. Of course, there are unknown parts of that, too, and half the fun is getting to see these kids break the rules to explore the unknown.
The sibling bonds and squad vibes in this was fun and made the adventure all the more enjoyable.
Agnes is the main character and obviously a go-getter. She’s the sort of child that a modern-day teacher would love: curious, inquisitive, eager to go seek out answers. Of course, in a town like Pleasant Grove, where the adults have secrets, this is problematic, to say the least. So what does Agnes do? Get her friends involved in her shenanigans, of course!
Agnes and her friends are nicely varied, which makes the adventures they go on all the more fun, as they react differently to it.
There’s even more fun dynamics between Agnes and her brother, since they’re in that stage where they argue all the time. Siblings are still siblings, though, right? I loved seeing them grow together, at least some.
“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Agnes’s lips curled into a shrewd smile. “I’ll try not to do it again.”
There’s definitely a bit of gore and death in this, so I’d caution parents about whether their kid is ready to handle that.
It’s not particularly gory, and it mostly takes place off-screen. This bad thing is about to happen, so cut scene to a character’s reaction about it. There are, I think, definitely things that are a bit more on the older, gorier side. Not so much where it would necessarily qualify as YA, but enough where I took notice. Price does a good job of glazing over the details and just saying that things happen rather than describing them in depth. Still, I would just caution parents to make sure their kids are ready for this level of horror!
“If nothing from inside could make them,” Bree said, “that means …” Her voice broke. And, for a moment, no one spoke, their throats seized into a collective, terrified silence.
The Darkdeep (The Darkdeep, #1)
by Ally Condie, Brendan ReichsPublished by: Bloomsbury Children's Books on October 2, 2018
Genres: Middle Grade, Horror, Fantasy
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
When a bullying incident sends twelve-year-old Nico Holland over the edge of a cliff into the icy waters of Still Cove, where no one ever goes, friends Tyler and Ella – and even 'cool kid' Opal – rush to his rescue... only to discover an island hidden in the swirling mists below.
Shrouded by dense trees and murky tides, the island appears uninhabited, although the kids can't quite shake the feeling that something about it is off. Their suspicions grow when they stumble upon an abandoned houseboat with an array of curiosities inside: odd-looking weapons, unnerving portraits, maps to places they've never heard of, and a glass jar containing something completely unidentifiable.
As the group delves deeper into the unknown, their discoveries – and their lives –begin to intertwine in weird and creepy ways. Something ancient has awakened... and it knows their wishes and dreams – and their darkest, most terrible secrets. Do they have what it takes to face the shadowy things that lurk within their own hearts?
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- A creepy mystery to be solved.
- Horror that seems chill at first and progressively gets worse.
- Enemies-to-friends type coming of age story.
- Lots of deep character growth and friendship bonds.
I kept seeing this book every time I shelved in YA at the library, and I was so curious. The Darkdeep is such a catching title, isn’t it? I just love the word Darkdeep, and I was super curious what it was.
The Darkdeep is a horror mystery about a group of kids that find an abandoned houseboat with a spooky secret in the basement that puts their entire town in jeopardy.
This was a fun adventure, but it took a while to ramp up. The beginning was really focused on teen drama but once the plot reared its head, it was smooth sailing from there. The ending also explains pretty much nothing about the things that happen in the book, which was a little bit frustrating. Even though I know this is a series, I was expecting some sort of little explanation? It was a small thing, but I’m definitely going to have to continue the series, because I’m curious to find out!
Something’s not quite right in Timber, and these kids are going to get to the bottom of it.
This is one of my favorite things in middle grade books, in particular. I love it when there’s not incompetent adults, per se, but the kids just end up finding the problem first (because kids are good at actually exploring and questioning things), so they take it upon themselves to … well, do just that. I can’t get enough of this trope!
In The Darkdeep, the kids stumble upon something curious, as kids do, and at first they don’t even think they need to tell adults, simply because of the slow build of the horror elements.
I’ll talk about that more in the next point, but it’s not that adults can’t or wouldn’t help them, but why would they need to? The kids have obviously found something magical and wonderful, right?! Totally harmless. You know … until it isn’t.
“Great name,” Nico said in a shaky voice. “Did you also have a dog named Dog?”
Emma didn’t seem to hear. “That was him. I don’t know how he became real.”
“Not real,” Tyler insisted. “Disappearing childhood bears are not real.”
There’s a slow-build horror in this that I found delightful.
The Darkdeep is a name the kids give their discovery, and at first, it doesn’t seem like an ominous name. It’s more of a descriptor. Things seem pretty cool at first. Heck, even I’d want to check out the Darkdeep myself if I had a change … at first.
Things don’t last that way for long, of course, before stuff goes sideways. I really enjoyed this sort of slow build, though, where it’s not just scary right off the bat. It’s almost a very Gremlins feel, where things seem great to start. Look, it’s a cute, fun little critter! It’s not until later that you realize what a horrible mistake it was. The Darkdeep has a similar sort of build-up.
Emma and Tyler clambered up next to them and the foursome clustered atop the same flat rock.
They all stared, words stolen from their lips.
The pull Nico felt earlier returned.
Come inside, the building seemed to whisper.
Come and see what I have for you.
There’s a lot of healthy character growth in this that I think middle graders and young teens will be able to relate to.
For me, the teen drama was a little bit of a drag, because I’m just not interested in that aspect of middle grade. Of course, I’m also not the target audience, so you can do with that what you’d like. For older readers, I think this definitely ends up slowing down the book in several places. For the target audience, though, I think this is an opportunity to really learn more about personal growth.
Several of the characters really have things to overcome. Opal, for example, has to balance where she fits between two groups, whether she wants to stand up for someone being bullied or if she wants to be popular. For that age, especially, it’s a tricky place to be in. Even the bully in this, though, has a bit of character growth, and the other characters are forced to stop and think about the bully as a rounded individual with the potential for change, too, instead of simply writing him off as a lost cause.
Nico was about to agree when two scarlet circles appeared in the mist, freezing his blood and pinning his sneakers to the ground. “Uh-oh,” Opal whispered, extending a shaky finger.
“Eyes,” Emma whimpered. “Those are very unfriendly looking eyes.”
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I love the way No Place for Monsters is illustrated! This looks like a fun spooky list. 🙂
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