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Book Review: Curse of the Boggin (The Library, Book 1) by D.J. MacHale


Curse of the Boggin (The Library, Book 1) by D.J. MacHale

Random House Books for Young Readers, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1101932537

Available: Hardcover, audiobook, audio CD

 

Marcus O’Mara was an ordinary troublemaking kid headed to detention until a ghost in pajamas started haunting him, and the words “surrender the key” appeared in shattered glass in the school hallway. Suspended from school for accidentally blowing out all the computers in the computer lab while in unsupervised detention, he researches the term on the Internet and finds the obituary of the man who has been haunting him, and decides to sneak out of the house to find the man’s family. When Marcus arrives at the man’s household,  his wife recognizes Marcus, and tells him that both her husband and his birth parents were paranormal investigators who died under mysterious circumstances. Her husband had been holding onto something left for Marcus by his parents: a key that can open any door into a library of unfinished stories. The librarian tells Marcus it is up to him to finish the chain of events that will lead to the end of the ghost’s story, which means capturing the spirit who led to his death: the boggin. The boggin is a spirit with the power of illusion whose chief purpose is to cause fear and dread, and it is the one demanding that Marcus “surrender the key”. With the help of his friends Lu and Theo, Marcus must find a way to defeat and imprison the boggin and prevent it from getting the key to the library.

This is the first book in a series, and provides the setup for further volumes that the author says can be read in any order as stand-alone adventures. And they are adventures: from the prologue on, the action rarely stops. MacHale’s economy of words means the story moves along, but there’s enough description to create appropriately frightening atmosphere (much of which is related to weather, such as lightning strikes and thick fog). A spirit who can create completely effective illusions gives the author a lot of latitude to work with in terms of creating some pretty nasty experiences for Marcus and his friends.  As in many suspense and mystery novels for middle-graders, there are a lot of unlikely coincidences and character tropes (MacHale plays with these, but the physically adventurous risk-taker and the cautious, nerdy skeptic are pretty standard) and the ending is predictable, but I love the concept of the Library! Kids looking for a mildly scary, suspenseful ride, with plenty of ghosts and spirits (and spiders), will enjoy this.

 

Editor’s note:  Curse of the Boggin is a nominee for the 2019-2020 Young Hoosier Book Award in the grades 4-6 category.

Posted on September 13, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer (Book 1) by Catherine Holt.

Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer: Book One by Catherine Holt
Albert Whitman & Company, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0807551257
Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

Midnight Reynolds was born at the stroke of midnight on Halloween. Her name and birthday have always made her stand out, when all she wants is to fit in. When her slightly wacky family– vegetarian recipe blogger mom, her fiance Phil (a mechanic who enjoys dressing like a Viking) and older sister Taylor– move to a new town, two popular girls, Sav and Lucy, immediately draw her in, and Midnight finds herself “fitting in” for the first time. The only problem is that Sav and Lucy both come from well-to-do backgrounds, while Midnight’s family is a little more financially stretched. So when Sav invites her to a week at a ski chalet over their winter vacation, Midnight has to find a job to earn the $200 she’ll need to buy things for the trip.  She takes a job with Miss Appleby, a neighbor with a broken leg. Miss Appleby was also born at the stroke of midnight on Halloween, and she tells Midnight that their birthday uniquely qualifies them to see ghosts, or “spectral energy”, and capture it. Miss Appleby has been doing this on her own, but now that she’s broken her leg, until she heals, she needs Midnight to do the ghost hunting. She explains to Midnight that spectral energyis dangerous. It possesses objects, and in order to remove it, Midnight will have to use a camera-like item called a spectral transformer to capture it. Once the spectral energy has been trapped on a glass plate, it can be separated later and held in a lead-lined tank in Miss Appleby’s yard.

While she’s working hard at fitting in and earning money (tw0 things that don’t necessarily match up) Midnight has additionally been partnered with the school goth, Tabitha, for a local history project. Midnight’s incredible organizational and spreadsheet skills (a weirdness she doesn’t share with her friends) and Tabitha’s interest in cemeteries and dead people are both valuable for the project, and it turns out that the two girls actually get along pretty well. Midnight can’t understand why Tabitha prefers her all-black look over friendship with Sav and Lucy, but most readers will pick that up right away, because you can’t not like Tabitha, and Sav and Lucy are pretty self-absorbed. Tabitha is into research and libraries (according to Tabitha, the librarian “may be a hacker, or a ninja”) and is also adventurous, so she turns out to be a perfect accomplice for Midnight as it turns out that Miss Appleby may not be telling the truth.

Midnight is an exasperating character, but we do get to see character growth.  I enjoyed seeing her change as she encountered unlikely aspects of characters who could have been left undeveloped.  Tabitha could have been a stereotypical goth girl, but Holt gives her context and a unique personality. Midnight’s soon-to-be-stepfather, who she is impatient with through the whole book, turns out to have hidden depths. Even cute boy Logan has more substance than I typically expect in a book this short. There are plenty of characters who still need fleshing out, but since this is the first book in a series, I expect we’ll see more of that in later volumes.

This isn’t a terribly scary book, but it does have its moments. Miss Appleby is responsible for some deeply disturbing actions, and Holt has strong descriptive powers. Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer  is an entertaining read for a tween looking for ghostbusting adventure and mild scares, and now that she’s come into her own, I’ll be interested to see what happens in book two. Recommended.

Posted on August 18, 2019 by , Reply

Musings: Introducing the Summer Scares Reading List

I am more than a little behind in getting information out to you all right now, but FINALLY I am at a place in my “gotta get it done” pile where I can share with you something I am pretty excited about. In fact, this is something I wanted to do years and years ago but could never really figure out how to execute it. Since Monster Librarian started, there have been huge changes in both the way HWA does things, how horror publishing works, and how seriously libraries take horror fiction. In 2006 (when we started reviewing) horror fiction and horror publishing was a pretty tiny community still communicating mainly through groups like Shocklines with independent presses that printed a lot of limited and collectible editions. Ebooks and self-publishing were just really getting their start and were the source of a lot of contention.

Dylan actually started  Monster Librarian during his internship for his MLS (for the uninitiated, that’s a master’s degree in library science) when he discovered that the other librarians working with him at the reference desk were familiar with Stephen King and… Stephen King, and neither knew or cared about most other contemporary horror. At the same time, I was sitting on a student choice awards nominating committee of school librarians who had neither a liking for or interest in horror or scary stories, this despite my being asked all the time “where are the scary books?” by kids. The fact that HWA now has a library committee, that major review publications now cover horror and scary stories and that there are major publishing imprints that now publish horror, that social media and sites like Book Riot exist and connect readers, writers, and publishers… this is huge. It makes Monster Librarian a very tiny fish now, but I am really proud that we have been here promoting horror for librarians and readers of horror and scary stories for all ages and have gotten to see and participate in this amazing growth and not just acceptance but celebration of the genre. I really wish Dylan was here to see this all happen.

And now, a press release on the beginnings of what I hope will be more than a one-time partnership: the Summer Scares reading program.

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SUMMER SCARES FIRST ANNUAL READING LIST ANNOUNCED

In celebration of National Library Lover’s Day, the Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Library Journal/School Library Journal, is delighted to announce the first annual Summer Scares Reading List, which includes titles selected by a panel of authors and librarians and is designed to promote horror as a great reading option for all ages, during any time of the year.

Each year, three titles will be chosen in the Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade categories, and for 2019 they are:

ADULT

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2017)

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due (Harper Voyager, 1998)

Earthworm Gods by Brian Keene (Deadite Press, 2012)

YOUNG ADULT

Rotters by Daniel Kraus (Ember, 2012)

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, edited by April Genevieve Tucholke (Speak, 2016)

Devil and Winnie Flynn by Micol Ostow (Penguin Random House Publisher Services, 2015)

MIDDLE GRADE

Doll Bones Holly Black (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2015)

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2014)

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin Young Readers, 2016)

The goal of the Summer Scares program is to introduce horror titles to school and public library workers in order to help them start conversations with readers that will extend beyond the books from each list and promote reading for years to come. Along with the annual list of recommended titles for readers of all ages, the Summer Scares committee will also release themed lists of even more “read-alike” titles for libraries to use when suggesting books to readers this summer and all year long. And, in order to help libraries forge stronger connections between books and readers, the Summer Scares committee will be working with both the recommended list authors and horror authors from all over the country, to provide free programming to libraries. From author visits (both in person and virtual) to book discussions to horror themed events, Summer Scares is focused on connecting horror creators with libraries and readers all year long.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) will also be hosting special Library Day programming at its annual StokerCon event, which will be held May 9-12 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Several of the authors from the Summer Scares reading list, as well as the committee members, will be in attendance. Authors and committee members will also be available throughout the year for on-site and/or remote appearances to libraries and schools to promote the Summer Scares program and discuss the use of horror fiction as a tool to increase readership and nurture a love of reading.

The Summer Scares program committee consists of award-winning author Grady Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls, Paperbacks from Hell), Becky Spratford (library consultant, author of The Readers Advisory Guide to Horror, 2nd Ed.), Carolyn Ciesla (library director, academic dean, book reviewer), Kiera Parrott (reviews director for Library Journal and School Library Journal), Kelly Jensen (editor, Book Riot, author of [Don’t] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health), and JG Faherty (HWA Library Program director, author of The Cure and Carnival of Fear).

The HWA is a non-profit organization of writers and publishing professionals, and the oldest organization dedicated to the horror/dark fiction genre. One of the HWA’s missions is to foster an appreciation of reading through extensive programming and partnerships with libraries, schools, and literacy-based organizations.

For more information about the Summer Scares reading program, including how to obtain promotional materials and schedule events with the authors/committee members, visit the HWA’s Libraries web page (www.horror.org/libraries), Becky Spratford’s Reader’s Advisory Horror Blog RA for All: Horror (http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/), or the Book Riot, School Library Journal, Library Journal, or United for Libraries websites and social media sites.

You can also contact JG Faherty, Library Program Director (libraries@horror.org) or Becky Spratford, HWA Secretary (bspratford@hotmail.com).

Posted on March 13, 2019 by , Reply
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