Sara Nickerson

I may need to reread this book but from what I remember it really stood out to me and I liked it a lot. It has some horror undertones to it but isn't exactly a horror book. It has gothic fantasy elements to it given the dark nature and weird elements of the book. I'm happy to see that almost 700 people have this in their library too- I feel like it is an underappreciated book and not many people know about it. For me, Mystery genre is one of those that are either outstandingly good or mediocre at best- there is no in between.This one is on the 'outstanding' side. I'd recommend it to your kids if they like mystery or need a mild introduction into the horror genre outside of Goosebumps.… (mehr)

I'm not at all sure how kids' books are classified these days, but I think you'd probably call this one a middle grade novel. The dust jacket seems to indicate it's recommended for fifth graders and up, and that seems about right to me.

The story features two girls whose father drowned four years ago under circumstance their depressed mother never talks about; a crumbling, spooky mansion their mom has apparently just inherited; and a mysterious hand-drawn comic book about a half-man/half-rat creature and a drowned ghost.

It's well-written, in a way that doesn't talk down to its young audience, the story's interesting and odd, and the snippets of the comic that are integrated into the story are very well-drawn. I kept going back and forth a bit on whether it was entirely working for me or not, though, I think mainly because I wasn't quite expecting some of the slightly surreal aspects of it. Well, that, and I'm not really in the book's target demographic these days. I suspect I would have really liked it when I was 12.

Rating: 3.5/5, but that's from jaded adult me. I would, in fact, recommend it to kids of the appropriate age, if they like slightly weird and off-kilter stories (and aren't too afraid of rats).… (mehr)