The Nightmare Hunter

Smith, Bradley. The Nightmare Hunter #1

April 1, 2025 by Penguin Workshop

E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus

Maxwell is an emo skateboarder who shows up at Gloomy Elms middle school to look for the next person who needs his help in dispelling nightmares. He sees the most likely candidate; Sid, who has been having nightmares and is shown at school with creatures attached to her that are invisible to everyone else. Maxwell dispatches them, and she feels oddly better, but she still thinks he is creepy, and her friends definitely don't believe that he can help. After several nights of worsening nightmares, Sid agrees to have Maxwell come to her house and sit beside her while she falls asleep so that he can enter her nightmare and help her figure out why she is having them. During their adventures, Maxwell tells her that he learned to do this nightmare busting with his younger sister Gwen, who is missing. In addition to helping over fifty others figure out why them are plagued with bad dreams, he hopes to locate his sister. Sid's nightmares are hard to figure out, but the two try to locate the source. At the end, Maxwell realizes that he still has more work cut out for him, since nightmares are increasingly trying to become really, and he still hasn't found his sister. The final panel shows him leaving Gloomy Elms looking for the next person to help, walking down the road ala Bruce Banner in The Hulk or Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven. 

Strengths: There are not too many middle grade horror graphic novels, and both the horror genre and the graphic novel format are very popular with my students. Dreams seem to be more vivid for the young, and I can see tweens thinking that of COURSE Maxwell can help Sid figure out her problem. This is a quickly moving story line with lots of action and adventure, with a dash of philosophy to add some meat to the plot. Not that younger readers will get the connection, but some of the nightmare sequences made me think of Jack Davis' vintage Mad Magazine illustrations. The E ARC was all in black and white, but the final version does appear to be in full color. 

Weaknesses: This required a bit of suspension of disbelief that Maxwell was roaming around on his own and could solve people's nightmares. Like Sid, I would have been very leery about inviting him into my home. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy spooky graphic novels like Terry's Graveyard Shakes or Lai's Ghost Book.