The Remedy of Books

Autumn is the perfect time for creepy tales, and not just because Halloween is approaching. The days are getting shorter, there's a chill in the air. So what better way to spend your evenings than with a warm drink and a scary book?
Here are some of my favorite creepy middle grade books (with one older book snuck in).

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

Whenever Edgar visits Uncle Montague in his dark old house—full of subtle sounds and moving shadows—his uncle tells him stories. These mostly take the form of cautionary tales, ending in a child's, often gruesome, death. Is it a coincidence that each story is linked to a physical object in the house? And how does uncle Montague know these stories when in every case the person they occurred to is dead? Edgar begins to wonder if there's more to his mysterious uncle than he'd ever guessed.

I love short stories. I think they work remarkably well for horror as they often leave much to the reader's imagination. Priestly does a great job of weaving these separately scary stories together into one sinister framework. (I must also mention the Edward Gorey-esque artwork by David Roberts which is gorgeous.)



We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Blackwoods live in a grand old house on the family estate. That is, half of them do. The other half died tragically six years ago when arsenic was mixed into the sugar bowl one evening. Now, mentally impaired Uncle Julian, big sister Constance, who was accused and then acquitted of the murders, and Merricat, the youngest in the family are the only three living there. Shunned by the people of the town, and terrified of setting foot beyond the garden, Constance hasn't left the grounds in six years. Merricat and Constance live a secluded but insularly happy life until an estranged cousin shows up and everything changes. Even Merricat's magic rituals are unable to stop tragedy from striking and secrets from being revealed. But even then, things might not be what they seem.

So, this is the non-MG book I've snuck in here. But it's worth it. While this book isn't exactly spooky, it's definitely got a creep factor, especially as you begin to realize the truth of what happened to the Blackwoods. Merricat is my absolute favorite example of an unreliable narrator. Even though it's clear from the beginning that we're getting her perspective, it's difficult to foresee just how *different* that perspective will turn out to be.



Tell the Story to its End by Simon P. Clark

When Oli finds a strange creature living in his uncle's attic, he decides to keep it to himself. After all, his mum, aunt, and uncle are all keeping secrets from him—why should he tell them anything? The creature, which Oli learns is called "Eren," is unspeakably old, and its unpredictable moods can turn from comfortingly sympathetic to dark and sinister in a breath. Oli, wary but fascinated is drawn ever inward by the creature's stories. Soon enough, Oli finds himself telling his own stories to Eren. But is it his imagination, or is Eren getting bigger and growing stronger? Oli may just find out that stories can be more powerful than he thought.

Tell the Story to its End (or Eren, in the UK) is a dark and beautiful examination of the enduring power of stories. In its literary and poetic way it manages to be both creepy and thought-provoking. Do stories need to be real to be true?




Lockwood & Co. The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

For the last fifty years England has been overrun by ghosts. They only come out after dark, and only children can see them—and fight them. Ghost hunting agencies have sprung up throughout the country, but nobody has been able to identify the cause of what is known simply as The Problem.
Amongst this, Lucy Carlyle is a talented psychic agent looking for work in London. She finds a job at the tiny ghost hunting agency of Lockwood & Co. run by charismatic and somewhat reckless Anthony Lockwood. After a series of dangerous encounters and a case gone horribly wrong, the team find themselves drawn into a job that might be beyond their abilities. It involves surviving the night in the most haunted house in England, and a staircase surrounded by the screams of the dead.

All the Lockwood books are equally amazing and are definitely among my top MG reads of all time. Stroud has an uncanny knack for being both super creepy and super funny in the same book. I couldn't put these books down, even though it meant reading some remarkably heart-thumping scenes by the light of my bedside lamp, surrounded by darkness.



Doll Bones by Holly Black

Zach, Poppy, and Alice are longtime friends. They've always been there for each other and always played together. But things start to change when Zach, pressured by his father, starts to question whether he's too old for make-believe games and friendships with girls. The friendship looks doomed to break apart until a curious incident reunites the three. Poppy begins to be haunted by a china doll. Or, more accurately, by the ghost of the murdered girl whose hair and ground up bones make up the doll. The doll must be returned to the murdered girl's grave or Poppy will face the ghost's wrath. The three set out on a quest to return the doll and find the truth about the murdered girl. Along the way, their friendship continues to be tested as they encounter setbacks, coming to the realization that being 12 makes adventuring a lot harder in the real world than in stories.

This book is wonderfully creepy without being very scary. Ultimately rather than being about ghosts, it's about the struggle of growing up and the way friendships adapt and change as you grow. But, if you're looking for an adventure with a healthy creep factor, this is the one for you.

I first saw this title mentioned in Publishers Weekly's children's e-mail as "book to watch." I thought it sounded interesting at the time, but forgot about it until the book trailer popped up in my Facebook feed a few weeks ago. After that, I moved it up in my "to-read" list, and I'm glad I did.

On the border between fantasy and magical realism, Serafina and the Black Cloak is a suspenseful supernatural mystery and a story about friendship and the realization that "normal" doesn't matter.

Official Blurb:

Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of the Biltmore estate. There’s plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate’s maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember.
But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is: a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore’s corridors at night. Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of the Biltmore’s owners. Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak’s true identity . . . before all of the children vanish one by one.
Serafina’s hunt leads her into the very forest that she has been taught to fear. There she discovers a forgotten legacy of magic, one that is bound to her own identity. In order to save the children of Biltmore, Serafina must seek the answers that will unlock the puzzle of her past.

Summary in a few words: Suspenseful; Atmospheric; Accessible

Suspenseful
I actually had no idea what to expect when I began reading this book. Even with the book trailer and the blurb indicating that there was something strange and supernatural happening, I wasn't prepared for how suddenly the reader is thrust into the mystery and the action. Within the first two chapters someone gets attacked and Serafina already has to run for her life. This is really drew me in right away.

Atmospheric
I've never been to Biltmore, but it was quite easy to imagine the grandeur of the old house. It's clear that Beatty did his research and was very familiar with the house's layout and how it would have been run. However, much more than the house, the nearby forest really has the images that will stick with me. The first scene in the forest with the coach was reminiscent of the early chapters of Dracula, when something as familiar and safe as a stagecoach journey suddenly becomes foreboding and dangerous. This section of the book that takes places in the forest is probably my favorite--I love abandoned places and, without spoiling anything, I'll just say that Serafina's journey into a certain part of the forest was deliciously creepy.

Accessible
Serafina is a wonderful character because despite being other-worldly, she is actually very like many children of her age. She has some physical differences which she worries and wonders about, and she ponders if she could fit in with "normal" people her age. She has certain things shes knows about but has never experienced (gifts, friends), and when she does experience these things for the first time, she worries whether or not she's "doing it right." I think many readers in the book's target audience will find a kindred spirit in Serafina.


This was a fun read and the action and suspense kept me turning pages well after bedtime. There were plenty of red herrings and I really enjoyed finding out more about Serafina and the type of creature she is.
It's also worth noting that this book accomplishes a rare feat in middle grade fantasy-- it has a protagonist who has a parent who is present throughout the book, is a developed character, and isn't the bad guy. So often in middle grade fantasy the parents must be Got Rid Of in order for the protagonist to start his or her adventure. It's understandable, and I'm not against stories that do this, but I really do appreciate when the parent(s) can remain in the picture without being evil or one-dimensional. Well done Robert Beatty.

Serafina and the Black Cloak book trailer:

I've avoided reading series recently because I really don't like having to wait for a next release in order to find out how a story continues. Especially after reading George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows several years ago, I thought I was done with reading series forever (that weird apologetic note at the end? What even was that?).
However I've started a couple middle grade series recently that are winning me back to the opinion that series can be good. It's great to read a book and already know the characters and world they're set in and be able to get down to the plot right away.
Two new favorites are Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike series (aka Wells and Wong Mysteries in the US) and Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. books.

The Murder Most Unladylike series are very fun murder mysteries set in the 1930s. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are students at Deepdean boarding school for young ladies. After forming a secret detective society they find that the murders almost seem to follow them around.

There are four book published so far in the UK and two in the US with the release date for #5 (UK) set for later this year.

Here's the official blurb for the first book, Murder Most Unladylike (in the US, Murder is Bad Manners):

When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t, really.)

But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared.

Now the girls know a murder must have taken place . . . and there’s more than one person at Deepdean with a motive. Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove a murder happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning, scheming and intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

I really love the setting both in time and place. Boarding schools hold a fascination for me as something both very foreign and very old-fashioned; although I know they still exist today (in the US as well as the UK!), I can't help imagining even today's boarding school students in 1920s clothes. Not all the books take place at the boarding school, but the other settings lend themselves well to mystery and Stevens provides helpful maps in each book to better imagine where and how the murders take places. As a big fan of Poirot--particularly on-screen (I love you David Suchet!)--the 1930s seems a perfect decade for mysteries.

The books are written from Hazel's perspective as she records the details of each case. The girls seem to have a sort of Sherlock and Watson relationship on the surface, but the reader quickly learns that far from simply recording Daisy's deductions, Hazel is actually the more thoughtful of the two and without the deductions of both girls the mysteries would not be solved. Both Hazel and Daisy are truly memorable characters and while they seem a bit over the top in their individual characteristics at first, they develop well over time and become more fleshed out as the books go on.

If I have one issue with this book it's that "Deepdean" is very difficult to say.

I definitely recommend these to anyone who likes an enjoyable and easy-to-read mystery with a good sense of humor.


As a side note, the buzz on Goodreads seems to indicate that the US versions have been unnecessarily "translated" for the American audience, but I have been reading the UK versions, so can't comment directly. As an American I found the UK versions completely comprehensible except that I had to look up how old the girls were as I'm not familiar with the school year system in the UK.

Since its release last month, Rebel of the Sands by debut author Alwyn Hamilton, hasn't stopped getting positive reviews... and here's another one (a little late to the party).

Official blurb

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.
Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.
Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.

Summary in a few words: Original; Pleasing; Arabian romance

Original
I love the combination of the wild west and Arabian nights. The two work surprisingly well together and, with Hamilton's brilliant world building, the reader is launched into an adventure in a world that is both familiar and exotically new. Small town in the middle of nowhere with a main character who wants desperately to escape, yes that's familiar. But, occasionally mythical horses gallop through town, shapeshifting "skinwalkers" roam the desert, and people whose fathers are among the magical First Beings walk hidden among normal people while a mysterious and possibly mythical prince leads a rebellion against the ruler of the land. That's new.

Pleasing
I appreciated that Amani was able to be tough without being an asshole. I think often in literature, but especially in television, when a female character is cool and tough, she also ends up being smug about it and kind of a jerk. I liked that Amani was real enough to make mistakes, but also didn't need to be saved all the time. I was a little disappointed to find that [spoilers] Amani isn't *just* a tough girl with amazing aim, but also is a "chosen one" type of hero--with special djinni blood. I feel in a way it takes away from her coolness a bit. She has cool abilities, but before we learned of her magical lineage, she was someone who was cool on her own merits.

Arabian Romance
To be honest I can do without romance in most books myself. I realize it's quite a staple of a lot of YA, so I can't complain when it exists. But I can say, if you were someone who had a crush on Aladdin as a kid, you won't mind what goes on in this novel between Amani and the suitably exotic and mysterious Jin.

When I started reading this I didn't realize it was part one of a trilogy. Now I am very much looking forward to the next installment and learning more about the rebellion. If you grew up loving The Arabian Nights and wishing there were more books set in that world, and don't mind some romance thrown in, definitely check out Rebel of the Sands.

I was so pleased to be able to read Riverkeep by Martin Stewart this week. The book is due out in April of this year in the UK and July in the US. The story is refreshingly imaginative while still delivering a classic Wizard of Oz-style adventure.

Official blurb

The Danék is a wild, treacherous river, and the Fobisher family has tended it for generations—clearing it of ice and weed, making sure boats can get through, and fishing corpses from its bleak depths. Wulliam’s father, the current Riverkeep, is proud of this work. Wull dreads it. And in one week, when he comes of age, he will have to take over.
Then the unthinkable happens. While recovering a drowned man, Wull’s father is pulled under—and when he emerges, he is no longer himself. A dark spirit possesses him, devouring him from the inside. In an instant, Wull is Riverkeep. And he must care for his father, too.
When he hears that a cure for his father lurks in the belly of a great sea-dwelling beast known as the mormorach, he embarks on an epic journey down the river that his family has so long protected—but never explored. Along the way, he faces death in any number of ways, meets people and creatures touched by magic and madness and alchemy, and finds courage he never knew he possessed.
Martin Stewart's debut novel is an astonishing blend of the literary, the comedic, and the emotionally resonant. In a sentence, it's The Wizard of Oz as told by Patrick Ness. It marks the beginning of a remarkable career.

I'm almost not sure what to say after that blurb, other than that it's very true.

My thoughts in a few words: Evocative, humorous in the right places, memorable characters, solid world-building.

Evocative.
Nothing in this book struck me so much as the wonderful descriptions that manage to capture individual moments in detail without being tedious. Martin Stewart has a beautifully strong grasp of how to describe a scene so that the reader truly feels as if they are there. At times the icy grasp of the river seemed to flow right out of the book. 

I would like to thank Heidi Schulz for once more giving me the opportunity to use my "pirates" tag on this blog.

The Pirate Code is the second book to feature young Jocelyn Hook, daughter of the famous Captain James Hook. As with the first book, Schulz continues to delight readers with not only a fantastic story, but lots of humor, and a view of the Neverland that is quite different to our childhood imaginings.

Official blurb:

Fresh off a fearsome encounter with the Neverland crocodile, Jocelyn Hook decides the most practical plan is to hunt down her father's famous fortune. After all, she'll need the gold to fund her adventuring in the future. (And luckily, Hook left her the map.)
But the map proves to be a bit harder to crack than Jocelyn had hoped, and she's convinced that the horrible Peter Pan might be the only one with the answers. Of course, he doesn't really feel like helping her, so Jocelyn takes the only reasonable course of action left to her: she kidnaps his mother. Evie, though, is absolutely thrilled to be taken prisoner, so Jocelyn's daring ploy doesn't have quite the effect she'd planned for.
Along with the problem of her all-too-willing captive, Jocelyn must also contend with Captain Krueger, whose general policy is that no deed is too dastardly when it comes to stealing Hook's treasure. And with the ever-shifting Whens of the Neverland working against her as well, Jocelyn, Evie, Roger, and the rest of the Hook's Revenge crew have their work cut out for them.
In this rambunctious showdown between characters new and old, Jocelyn puts her own brand of pirating to the test in a quest to save her future and those she loves.

My thoughts in a few words: Funny and clever, unpredictable, beautifully imaginative.

Funny and clever.
The grumpy pirate narrator returns (never letting us forget that he really can't stand children and we are being quite a bother to him) and tells the story, interrupting every once in a while for a well-timed aside that's sure to make you smile.

Illustrations by John Hendrix

Beautifully imaginative.
There were a few scenes in the book that really stuck with me and which I thought were really brilliant. One is the forest that is fed by things children have left behind. What a fantastic concept. I love the concept of a tree that survives on a child's abandoned belief in magic, or fear of toads, or other things children at some point give up as they grow.

The other image I loved was the Jolly Roger sitting atop a mountain. I love abandoned things, so the idea of a lonely ship that once was a terror of Neverland's seas sitting on a mountain covered in snow was very evocative.

Definitely recommended for all ages of folk who like a rollicking adventure.

For more about Heidi Schulz, visit her piratey website. To buy The Pirate Code from your local independent bookstore, visit IndieBound.