The Creepening of Dogwood House

Royce, Eden. The Creepening of Dogwood House
July 30, 2024 by Walden Pond Press

E ARC provided by Netgalley

 Roderick and his mother, Layla, a bank accoutns manager, had a comfortable life and were very close until her untimely death in a car accident. Unable to locate any relatives, the authorities put him in an orphanage, where he is at least taken good care of by Ms. Penny, who understands the depths of his grief and lets him help her in the kitchen. When his Aunt Angela is finally found, she rushes home from her extended honeymoon with her new husband, Erik. Both are involved with refurbishing old properties, so it's not a big surprise when they tell Roddie that they will be moving into Layla and Angela's childhood home in South Carolina, not far from where Roddie had been living. The house has been rented since the death of the grandparents, and is in rough condition. It's liveable, but there's a lot of work to be done. Roddie is clearly struggling, but his aunt and new uncle strike a good balance with being glad to be with him, and being sad about the reasons for this. Dogwood House, so called because of the dogwood trees that used to be growing nearby, was built by Roddie's great-great-great grandfather, and there are some surprises that show up in the renovation, like the grandmother's porcelain jewelry box. There's a persistent, fetid smell, but this is dismissed as part and parcel of the damp climate and the poor condition of the house. Roddie throws himself in to renovating, even stripping the wallpaper from his room. There are creepy things in the house which are not made less creepy by Angela's attempts to embrace the family's hoodoo past. She gives Roddie a bowl to use to burn any hair that comes out in his comb, saying that there was a belief that spirits could control you if they have some of your hair. Roddie's hair has been neglected since his mother's death, since she would braid it for him. Layla always had a very short hair cut, and Angela has locs, so Roddie tries to condition and style his hair by himself, although Angela does offer to help. When Roddie starts getting headaches, he starts to worry that the family lore about the Bridgeweaver, an evil spirit who is taking people's hair and using it for malevolent purposes, might be real. Will he be able to harness his mother's spirit of "keep pushing through the darkness" to save his new home and family from destruction?

Strengths: If I were a tween who had read a lot of books, I would be utterly terrified of moving. New homes are ALWAYS haunted, from Wright's 1984 Ghosts Beneath Our Feet to Sutherland's The Nightmare Night Door and several K.R. Alexander titles. This had a bit of a spin to it, with the hoodoo surrounding the hair, and the family backstory about previous hauntings that caused the house to be abandoned to renters. Angela and Erik are fantastic relatives who step up to take care of Roddie and are so sensitive to his needs. The build up to the Bridgeweaver is well done; it took me a while to figure out why there were so many details about hair, but it all paid off. Roddie's grief is realistically portrayed, and I did appreciate that he had been in counseling. This is on trend with the idea that you can't get rid of bad memories without getting rid of good ones as well. 
Weaknesses: I wish that the mother hadn't been killed, but it does at least forward the plot. It seems more likely that Roddie would have gone into foster care, but maybe there are still orphanages in the South. The hair in the wallpaper grossed me out, but that's more of a more of a "me" thing that should play well with students. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who enjoyed Royce's Conjure Island or Root Magic, or other books involving Southern US creepy folklore like Smith's Hoodoo or Bourne's Nightmare Island. This was creepy enough that I will buy a copy. 

I read this in March; I've read 43 books so far and am only buying two of them. Don't know what's going on in middle grade right now, but hoping for more appealing titles soon!