October 3, 2023 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Mary is not happy that her parents are moving away from her perfectly nice life in the city to the remote Beacon Point, although she has to concede that their huge older home, while decrepit, is pretty cool. There are scratching sounds in the attic that aren't appealing, however. At school, she meets Lucas, who lives on a farm with his father, and has to spend a lot of time doing chores. He's not happy with the fact that their scarecrow, Mr. Sackhead, seems to be moving around on his own. Byron, a quiet boy who attends their school, is concerned that his best friend Beverly has gone missing, as have many people in Beacon Point. There was even a radio program, hosted by an Alan Graves, that addressed all of these creepy things around town, which included monsters of all sorts, and some of the transcripts of these are included between chapters. There are some other kids in town, including Jennifer, who babysits young Kyle and has to deal with the creepiest deer ever attacking the house, and Rebecca, who has staked out space in an abandoned factory for herself, but who has to deal with an alarming bird creature coming up out of the floor! When the monsters attacks accelerate and more kids go missing, Mary, Lucas, and Byron decide that something must be done. Will they be able to figure out the centuries old mysteries of Beacon Point and make the area safe again?
Strengths: Well, this certainly has some of the best described creepy monsters I've ever read. Just look at that cover! Deer with human faces, doppelgangers, pale and waxy faces of reanimated corpses, Mr. Sackhead... shiver. This is gross without being overly violent; menacing is a better word, although there are well placed attacks. Not my favorite sort of thing, but students will LOVE this. I liked the town history, with the librarian who turned sort of evil. The radio program sounds a bit like a podcast, and I do have some students who enjoy the more grusome ones of these. This is available in hardcover, but since it is listed at $12.34, I'm imagining this is paper over boards, so I will purchase three copies.
Strengths: Well, this certainly has some of the best described creepy monsters I've ever read. Just look at that cover! Deer with human faces, doppelgangers, pale and waxy faces of reanimated corpses, Mr. Sackhead... shiver. This is gross without being overly violent; menacing is a better word, although there are well placed attacks. Not my favorite sort of thing, but students will LOVE this. I liked the town history, with the librarian who turned sort of evil. The radio program sounds a bit like a podcast, and I do have some students who enjoy the more grusome ones of these. This is available in hardcover, but since it is listed at $12.34, I'm imagining this is paper over boards, so I will purchase three copies.
Weaknesses: Did I miss what happened to Beverly? Did she ever return? The pages on the E ARC turned suuuuuuper slowly, so I couldn't go back and easily check. There were a lot of pages with dark backgrounds or page decorations that made them slow to load. I wish there were a way to take these out of digital versions of the books.
What I really think: This is not the sort of book that I like, and as an adult I found some of the characters annoying (Mary at the beginning of the book... ugh!), but this has an undeniable appeal to younger readers who like all sorts of scary, gross monsters. If you enjoy this thing, feel free to follow Mr. Henderson on Twitter under @slimyswampghost. I'm going to pass, thanks, but then, I haven't even watched the filmi adaptation of Delaney's fabulous The Revenge of the Witch because it looks too scary!
What I really think: This is not the sort of book that I like, and as an adult I found some of the characters annoying (Mary at the beginning of the book... ugh!), but this has an undeniable appeal to younger readers who like all sorts of scary, gross monsters. If you enjoy this thing, feel free to follow Mr. Henderson on Twitter under @slimyswampghost. I'm going to pass, thanks, but then, I haven't even watched the filmi adaptation of Delaney's fabulous The Revenge of the Witch because it looks too scary!
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