This book had potential to be really scary, but I found that the writing style constantly diffused the tension. This would be a good book for kids on the younger side of middle grade who like scary stories. The author holds your hand throughout and kind of gives you the idea of what you should think. There's a lot of "I trusted her. She's my friend....or is she?" dun dun DUN!!! And I found it tiring after a while.

Overall, this is a quick read with an interesting premise that I wish was realized better. ( )

"There are three rules for living here. One, never leave your windows open after dark, even if it's hot. Two, no dolls in the house. And three, never, ever go by the house in the woods."
As always my reviews are based off of my true and honest opinion and I do my best to keep all reviews spoiler free.

Sixth grader Josie and her little sister Annie along with there mom are leaving the city to move in with there grandmother in the country. A choice that Josie isn't to happy about. Josie's grandmother always made it clear to stay out of the woods and about the three important rules to never break. Josie isn't sure how she feels about these rules, but there are strange noises coming from the woods at night, and some of those noises sounds like someone calling her name. Soon Josie makes friends with fellow sixth grader Vanessa. She lives in the creepy old house by the woods, the one grandma warned her about. Complete with creepy old dolls. Between the rules, the house, the dolls, her dreams, and her friends suspicious behavior, Josie can feel that something is very wrong and she fears for her and her sister.

This book was really good even considering it was meant for much younger than me. I started reading it at night and it is a quick read. Most adults could finish it in an hour or two. Keeping in mind that I get spooked easily. I recommend reading this in the day. I started it at night right before bed and I got seriously spooked, but thats what was so great about it.I found it to be fast paced and really entertaining. Great for a quick scare. It reminded me a bit of Goosebumps and I like Goosebumps.The only real problem I had with it was it wasn't really an original story. Lots of creepy dolls and a spooky woods, complete with a old superstitious grandmother. However, even with the same old story it still held my attention and I truly enjoyed this book. ( )

This book had potential to be really scary, but I found that the writing style constantly diffused the tension. This would be a good book for kids on the younger side of middle grade who like scary stories. The author holds your hand throughout and kind of gives you the idea of what you should think. There's a lot of "I trusted her. She's my friend....or is she?" dun dun DUN!!! And I found it tiring after a while.

Overall, this is a quick read with an interesting premise that I wish was realized better. ( )

Although Josie loves her grandmother, she isn't thrilled about moving in with her. She misses Chicago and, since her grandmother doesn't have internet, she can't contact her old friends. However, Josie's mom recently lost her job, and Josie's grandmother has been displaying worrying signs of Alzheimer's, so Josie's mom decides that this move is for the best.

Josie's grandmother has several odd rules. First, Josie and her sister Anna are not allowed to leave any windows open after dark. Second, no dolls are allowed in the house. And third, Josie and Anna are not allowed to enter the woods behind Josie's grandmother's house. Josie's grandmother also keeps talking about someone named Beryl - Beryl is hungry, and wants to take Josie and her sister away. Part of Josie wants to dismiss this as signs of her grandmother's Alzheimer's, but part of her worries that there might be some truth to it, especially after she and Anna have nightmares about a doll and a creepy house in the woods.

But then Josie makes her first friend at school, a girl named Vanessa. Vanessa is kind, cool, and a vegetarian just like Josie. She lives alone with her aunt. Who collects porcelain dolls. And whose house just happens to be located in the woods, and look just like the one in Josie and Anna's nightmares. But surely it's just a coincidence.

My eldest niece is now old enough to start recommending books, and this is the first book she recommended to me. I later learned that she probably recommended it because she was in the process of reading it and loving it - my sister told me that she ended up disliking and feeling dissatisfied with the ending. Still, my bookish self was happy to get the recommendation. Here's hoping for more in the future.

Alexander tapped into quite a few real-life fears in this book: moving to a new place, trying to make new friends when everyone else already seems to have formed their own cliques, worrying about elderly relatives, and just generally feeling out of place and cut off. Josie can't contact her friends back in Chicago because of her lack of internet, and she seems to be the only vegetarian at a school with horrible lunches that always feature meat in the main course. The creepy dolls, strange dreams, and weird sounds were icing on the cake.

To my adult self, this book wasn't particularly scary. Still, Josie's first visit to Vanessa's house was pretty good. Josie immediately found the place creepy but tried to pretend that she was fine being there, because she didn't want to lose Vanessa's friendship and Vanessa's explanation for why it looked the way it did seemed plausible (her aunt was a big doll collector and was too injured to keep the house properly maintained). Unfortunately, things got a bit too hokey for me when the story behind Beryl, the dolls, and the house in the woods was finally explained.

I'm interested to hear which aspect of the ending my niece had problems with. I can think of two possibilities: the fate of one of the characters and the "you thought it was over but it isn't really over" last page. Based on what my sister said, I'm guessing it was the latter that bugged her.

All in all, this was mostly okay until the revelations at the end.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

I don't remember where I saw this recommended or reviewed, but I picked it up with some trepidation as I'm not generally a fan of horror. My ultimate conclusion thought was that it was more boring than scary.

Josie and her little sister, Anna, have moved with their mom to stay with their grandmother in a small town in the country. Josie is worried about starting a new school and her grandmother's deteriorating mental condition, which leads to her giving the girls some strange rules like no dolls in the house and never visiting the woods. After a rough start, Josie makes friend at school, Vanessa. But there's something a little... odd about Vanessa.

SPOILERS

After much, much, much foreshadowing, it turns out that Vanessa is actually a childhood friend of their grandmother's. She's been preserved as a doll, sent out to lure more children into the terrifying house in the woods by Beryl, another childhood friend who is an evil witch. Josie eventually manages to defeat the witch and save her sister and the other children who were turned into dolls, but Vanessa (and the other children) return to their true ages and Vanessa disintegrates into ash and... magic. But Josie's grandmother starts recovering almost immediately and Josie now has real friends in school.

There was a LOT of atmospheric shadowing, but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that there was something off about Vanessa. Everything was quickly resolved at the end, except perhaps for the children who returned to their true ages and then had to explain where they'd been for so many years? This is never addressed. The plot felt pretty tried-and-true and I can see it being pushed aside by my horror fans who want really scary books.

Verdict: Kids who want mildly scary fare will enjoy this, but it's what I'd pick as a backlist title, if you need more books in a certain genre. It is only a little over 200 pages which is a bonus for readers who are reluctant to dive into the massive tomes that seem to be popular today.

ISBN: 9781338212242; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Borrowed from another library in my consortium