Took

memoiloveit - I think this book is fair because it’s suspenseful. The main character, Daniel, has just moved to West Virginia with his family. Daniel and his little sister, Erica, suspect something suspicious around their house and they feel like someone’s always watching them. Old Auntie, an evil witch that lives nearby, spies on them. She plans to take Erica and use her as a servant for 50 years and then let her go, like she did for other girls. Daniel’s family doesn’t believe in Old Auntie, but everybody in their town says that she’s real. Old Auntie lured Erica into her cabin through a doll that Erica always talks to about Old Auntie, although nobody else can hear it. Daniel and Erica go into the woods, where Old Auntie lives because they were searching for Erica’s doll. Erica runs away because Daniel was being mean to her, and then later gets taken by Old Auntie. Daniel goes to one of Old Auntie’s descendants, who wanted to help him, and learns the only way to get his sister back. Daniel learns that Old Auntie is real when he confronts her, and takes her sister back and runs home. I think that this book could be better, because the end isn’t interesting. In the resolution, Daniel gets his sister back and Old Auntie is destroyed. If Old Auntie was still chasing after Daniel, the story could be more interesting if everybody saw Old Auntie, especially Daniel’s parents. Also, if the story didn’t end the way Daniel wanted it to end, it wouldn’t be as boring. It’s almost like a fairy tale, because it ends happily and it has an unrealistic character in it. I think that this book would have a good cliffhanger which would be able to start another book, but the author ended it in a way that makes readers not think or wonder about the book at all afterwards.

July 13, 2015
This spooky mystery from one of the genre’s longtime virtuosos features seventh-grader Daniel and his seven-year-old sister, Erica, who face severe culture shock when their father’s job loss forces them to move from suburban Connecticut to an abandoned farmhouse in rural West Virginia. Readers know from the opening pages, narrated by spell-weaving old “Auntie,” that the family is in for big trouble—more than being bullied at school or the parents’ disintegrating relationship. Danger beckons from the surrounding woods and mountains; when Erica’s beloved look-alike doll, and then Erica herself, vanish in a fashion similar to the disappearance of a seven-year-old girl 50 years ago, Daniel reluctantly ponders the possibilities of his schoolmates’ rumors about a “conjure woman” and her resurrected razorback hog, Bloody Bones. Hahn (Where I Belong) smoothly depicts Daniel’s spiraling evolution from rational thinker to fearful believer, which is supported by interspersed chapters in Auntie’s voice that reveal the dark magic taking place. Satisfyingly frightening, if not quite as gripping as some of Hahn’s others, this will be welcomed by readers with an appetite for scary books. Ages 9–12.