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Book Review: The Phantom Hour (Babysitting Nightmares #2) by Kat Shepherd

The Phantom Hour (Babysitting Nightmares #2) by Kat Shepherd

Imprint, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1250156990

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

This summer has been a great one for discovering books with all kinds of girls, from reckless risktakers to insecure new girls, facing their fears– literally.  What a victory for representation, am I right? I wanted to make a list, but I would have spent hours on it.

Babysitting Nightmares by Kat Shepherd is a series I want to see succeed like crazy. I encountered the second book, The Phantom Hour, at the library, and it is so much fun! Apparently there’s a third out now, The Ghost Light, so I’ll be back at the library soon.  The book centers on four friends, all seventh graders, with very different interests and backgrounds. Clio is the leader,  and the book is worth reading, if for no other reason, than to encounter her aunt, Kawanna, who runs a costume shop called Creature Feature located in a storefront on Coffin Street, wears a Godzilla print skirt, hosts horror movie nights for the girls, and drives them where they need to go on their secret missions without actually interfering. Doesn’t she sound like someone you’d want to be friends with?

If you were thinking “this sounds like The Babysitters Club dressed up with ghosts”, you’d be wrong. While there is a standalone storyline in this book, there’s also a thread that connects it to the first book and on into the third. In the first book, the four girls had to enter the Nightmare Realm to retrieve one of their charges who had been replaced with a changeling,  but apparently the Nightmare Realm is not done with them. So as they go about their daily lives and babysitting jobs, they also have to contend with containing the Nightmare Realm. In The Phantom Hour,  Clio takes a job babysitting for the Lee family, who have just moved into the abandoned Plunkett Mansion. Of course the mansion has a supernatural resident, and it’s up to Clio, with help from her friends, to figure out what’s going on and resolve it.  Shepherd does a nice job not just of portraying a diverse group of girlfriends (including three girls of color) who really support each other. The little girl Clio is babysitting is hearing impaired and she’s also represented respectfully.

While most hardcore horror lovers might not get much of a scare out of this book, it has some genuinely creepy and frightening moments– the ghost in the story is not a friendly one.  This series is a nice change from books about girlfriends who are crushing on boys and tearing each other down. It’s not every day you see a positive depiction of four smart, geeky girlfriends taking on and defeating the supernatural, and this one is tops.  Highly recommended.

 

Posted on August 7, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Nightmare Room and The Hungry Ones (Messy Man series, vols 1 and 2) by Chris Sorenson

The Nightmare Room (Messy Man series, vol. 1) by Chris Sorensen

Harmful Monkey Press, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-908342-41-2

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

The Hungry Ones (Messy Man series, vol. 2) by Chris Sorenson

Harmful Monkey Press, 2019

ISBN: 978-0998342-42-9

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

The Nightmare Room and The Hungry Ones are the first two volumes in an ongoing horror series by Chris Sorenson.  Despite being billed as stand alone novels, they do need to be read in order. Otherwise, the second volume won’t make any sense.  The initial book, The Nightmare Room, features Chris and Hannah Larson, a couple in their mid-thirties who have suffered through the tragedy of losing their only child to cancer at a young age.  In an attempt to put the past behind them, they uproot themselves from New York City and move back to Peter’s hometown of Maple City, Illinois.  Peter’s parents live there in an assisted living facility, and his dad suffers from dementia.  Peter and Hannah move into an abandoned farmhouse owned by Peter’s dad, and Peter soon has to deal with spectral events (strange audio recordings, scratching sounds, ghostly figures) in the house, which tie back to his own upbringing.  The Hungry Ones is more of the same in Maple City, but with a different protagonist (Jessie Voss) and a different haunted building:  an old, abandoned motel with a history of murder being done within its walls.

 

Both books are similar in their writing style, although The Hungry Ones is clearly the stronger of the two.  The first book feels like an author taking his first trial steps at writing a full length horror novel.  It’s written in a sparse fashion, without a whole lot of description.   That works for certain types of stories, but when dealing with the supernatural, it helps to go heavy on explaining what’s happening.  Sorensen’s writing is vague enough in the first book that understanding what is going on can be confusing at times, when Peter is combating the antagonist, known as the “Messy Man’. The second volume in the series is an improvement over the first.  The descriptions are better, and the hotel is a much more interesting backdrop.  Sorenson peppers it with a variety of ghostly characters, and he wisely intersperses the narration with brief chapters explaining how each of those spirits came to be.  These interludes provide some of the best writing in the book, as each character proves to be entertaining, with a unique backstory.  Jessie Voss also proves to be a more interesting protagonist. She got a large sum of money in an accident settlement, and decides to invest it all in revamping a motel with a tragic past.  She’s a headstrong woman, and holds the attention better than Peter’s character. Jessie’s friend Stephanie also adds some depth to the story.  The variety of characters in The Hungry Ones accounts for a good deal of the improvement over the first volume.

Both books combined give a decent start to the series, but as noted, explaining things a little better would help the series in the future.  The character of Woodrow in the second book was important to the plot, but it was difficult to understand his reason for vaping fluid with bits of bone mixed in, as well as his control (or lack thereof) over three ghosts that occupy the same room as him at the hotel.  Peter’s dealings with the Messy Man and his melding with him were also difficult to follow.  Example: at one point, Peter threatens the spirit attached to him with “if you try to stop me, I’ll split myself in two and drown you in life, every single second of it.”  It sounds good, but what does it actually mean?  Writing in a metaphysical sense sometimes works, but in this case, and in many other places in the book, the flow would be helped if it were more straightforward.

If you are okay with some things not making total sense, and you like supernatural stories with minimal gore, this is a book series you could probably get into.  These books could probably be classified as ‘horror lite’, so they would be perfectly suited for YA readers looking to start getting into ghost and horror reading.  Veteran readers of ghost and horror stories may want to look elsewhere.  Both books are quick reads, clocking in at under 300 pages.  The easily readable length, combined with the style of writing, make them perfect gifts for literary kids around Halloween.

Contains: mild violence, mild profanity.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on August 7, 2019 by , Reply

Book List: Grady Hendrix’s Summer Scares Recommendations (Middle Grade)

Well, we’re about halfway through summer now, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have time for more summer reading!

The HWA’s summer reading recommendation program, Summer Scares, is ongoing. Earlier this summer, I went over committee member Kiera Parrot’s middle grade suggestions, but she isn’t the only one on the committee to have made additional recommendations.  Grady Hendrix, author of a number of excellent books including the reference book Paperbacks from Hell, which covers paperback novels from the 1970s and 1980s, recommended a few older titles.

 

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

HarperCollins, 1987

ISBN-13: 978-0380704422

Available: Library binding, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, MP3 CD

 

You might remember that Kiera Parrot recommended a recent book by Mary Downing Hahn, The Girl in the Locked Room, in our previous booklist of middle-grade recommendations for Summer Scares. Mary Downing Hahn has been writing since the 1970s, and Wait Till Helen Comes is one of her earlier books.  Published in 1986, it has received multiple reader’s choice awards and was made into a movie. A reread of Wait Till Helen Comes shows that it is still seriously creepy. The story starts with narrator Molly’s mother remarrying to a man named Dave, whose daughter Heather is troubled and possessive of her father after her mother died in a fire. The new family moves to a converted church in the middle of nowhere, under Molly’s protest. Molly’s mother tells Molly that as the older child, it is her responsibility to take care of and get along with Heather, who is openly hostile to both of them, to Dave’s obliviousness.

Together, Molly and Heather discover a graveyard on the property, with a stone that has the initials H.E.H, the same as Heather’s. Heather becomes obsessed with discovering who it is, and Molly witnesses her having a conversation with a ghost girl called Helen. When Molly brings it up with their parents, Heather denies it and Dave and Molly’s mother dismiss it as superstition and imagination. When Heather and Molly are alone, though, Heather threatens Molly, and one day when the family is out of the house, they return to discover that Molly’s and her mother’s things have been destroyed. Once again, their parents accuse Molly of making things up to make things more difficult for Heather.

After learning that Helen drowned after escaping a fire where her parents died, and that a number of girls have drowned since then in a nearby pond, Molly decides she must break Helen’s hold over Heather before someone dies. The climactic scene between Helen, Heather, and Molly, will leave your heart pounding fast.  While far from perfect, the story is atmospheric, suspenseful, and compelling enough to overlook any flaws, especially if you’re 9 years old. The book does deal with death, grief, and suicide, so some people have raised objections to it in the past, but in the fantasy context I don’t think it’s likely to lead to more.

 

The House With a Clock in Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt, #1) by John Bellairs, illustrated by Edward Gorey

Puffin, 2004 (reprint edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0451481283

Available: Library binding, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

First published in 1973, this is another classic, not just in middle-grade horror (or Gothic mystery, if you’d rather), but in children’s literature. It is 1948, and 10 year old Lewis Barnavelt’s parents have died, so he is sent to live with his eccentric Uncle Jonathan. Jonathan and his neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman, are magicians, and Jonathan’s house previously belonged to Isaac Izzard, a warlock, or black magician, who has a clock with an unknown purpose ticking away in the walls. As a result, Jonathan has filled the house with clocks to cover over the sound. It’s enough to make a magician uneasy enough to stop the clocks in the middle of the night, and Lewis is just a kid.

If Lewis only had to interact with Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman, the book would be filled with oddities, quirky moments, minor wonders, and an illustration of what the friendship of long-term, close, and very different friends looks and feels like. And it does have those things. But when school starts, Lewis has to find a place among his peers, and as he’s not athletic, he’s soon left in the dust. One of the popular, athletic boys breaks a leg and starts spending time helping Lewis with athletic skills, and in hopes of continuing the friendship Lewis boasts of his uncle’s magical powers, first claiming that Jonathan can block the moon and then suggesting that the two boys use his spellbook to raise the dead. Sneaking out in the middle of the night, Lewis and his friend recite the spell in front of an unknown tomb and really do manage to raise the dead. Unsettled by his experiences with magic, Lewis’ friend abandons him, leaving him on his own, to deal with the person he has raised from what turns out to be Isaac Izzard’s crypt– a person who wants to find the clock in the walls of his uncle’s house.

This is a great book for so many reasons. Lewis himself is kind of an oddball kid, reading historical lectures late into the night and reciting Catholic prayers when he’s anxious. Awkward around his peers, he is interested in puzzles and spells, and brave enough to confront his fears. While he doesn’t want to admit his mistakes, in the end he takes responsibility for his actions and resolves what has become a terrifying situation in a creative way. In a strange environment, he adapts to becoming part of the rather odd friendship/family of Mrs. Zimmerman and Uncle Jonathan, who may bicker with each other but are loyal and stand up for each other when it counts. You might have to get today’s impatient kids to stick with the book through the first few pages of Lewis’ train ride and Latin recitations, but upon meeting Uncle Jonathan, they’ll want to know more. Even though the story has a slow build, it is interesting along the way, and once it speeds up, readers won’t want to stop.

I can’t not mention that Edward Gorey illustrated this book. His illustrations are what set the mood for the story, and the book wouldn’t be the same without them.

 

Gegege no Kitaro  (The Birth of Kitaro) by Shigeru Mizuki

Drawn & Quarterly, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1770462281

Available: Paperback

 

Kitaro is a manga series by artist Shigeru Mizuki that dates back to the 1960s, described by David Merrill as ” the seminal yokai-busting horror-fantasy-folkore-adventure-comedy manga”. The titular character, Kitaro, is a young boy with one eye who serves as a diplomat between humans and yokai (Japanese folk monsters).  Originally a more adult title called Graveyard Kitaro, the series really took off when it was retooled as GeGeGe no Kitaro to be more of a funny-scary series for elementary-aged kids, and was even spun off into several different television shows.  While Kitaro is somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon in Japan, it hasn’t been well-known in the United States. The publisher Drawn & Quarterly has been releasing English-language volumes of Kitaro over the past several years. The first is out of print, but The Birth of Kitaro shares Kitaro’s origin story, so it might be a good place to start. I haven’t had the opportunity to examine these myself, but I saw and (briefly) blogged about Mizuki’s yokai art last year, and it is amazing. For some adult manga lovers, Kitaro may have more nostalgia or historic value than anything else, but it looks to be a great choice for middle-grade readers who love monsters.

 

Wait Till Helen Comes and The House With a Clock in Its Walls are pretty well known in the world of children’s literature, but Kitaro won’t be familiar to a lot of librarians or middle-grade readers. Summer Scares gives you the opportunity not only to introduce some old, familiar favorites, but to bring to light some lesser-known titles that deserve more of a spotlight and increase the breadth of kids’ exposure to manga as well as to creatures and stories from another country and culture. Enjoy!

 

Posted on July 10, 2019 by , Reply
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