Skip to main content

ENCHANTED STORIES: Gloom Town

Image
By


Gloom Town 
Ronald L. Smith
HMHKids, 2020. 267 p.

Rory is a 12-year-old kid who lives with his mom in Gloom Town. Since life is hard and they are behind on their rent, Rory takes an odd job as a valet at the Foxglove Manor—the spooky old place in town that everyone says is haunted. As Rory starts to work as a valet, things get a little horrific and dangerous. Rory learns that there is more than what appears at the manor and the whole town might be in trouble. When Rory discovers a bit about what is really happening, he turns to his best friend Izzy. The two of them work to figure out what paranormal-horror is coming and what they can do about it.

This is the type of scary story that those just wanting to start reading horror might like. The paranormal monsters are scary—but not so scary that kids won’t stay up all night with nightmares. The fight against evil in the climax is properly thrilling—but not so suspenseful that readers will wet their pants while reading it. And the resolution is long and calm enough that readers will feel like the problem is fully resolved and they can go to sleep without worrying if the Lord of Foxglove Manor is going to haunt their dreams. All in all, this is a good book for those young readers who like good characters, intriguing story, and a nice heaping of horror—without the teen dreadful proportions that will keep younger readers awake all night long.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more