The Devil Crept In

Starred review from November 21, 2016
Lauded author Ahlborn (Within These Walls) delivers a beautiful and deftly wrought horror story of mothers, sons, and the delicate bond between cousins. Ten-year-old Stevie Clark of Deer Valley, Ore., is a word-salad stutterer with one friend in the world: his older cousin Jude. When Jude goes missing, Stevie is the only one who takes it seriously, and he knows the creepy house in the woods must be involved. Despite an uninterested town and his own fear, Stevie embarks on an investigation that convinces him there’s a monster lurking in the woods. The real horror comes when Jude abruptly returns and Stevie must accept that he may still have lost his friend. With sympathetic attention paid to the relationships between overwhelmed mothers and the sons they can’t save from evil, and prose that elegantly evokes tension while illustrating Stevie’s rich inner world, readers will be engrossed and thrilled right through to the chewy final twist.

Starred review from January 1, 2017

Young Jude Brighton disappears from his Oregon hometown of Deer Valley one day, leaving his cousin and best friend Stevie Clark distraught. Stevie, with his history of delusions and verbal tics, had retreated from the bullies who tormented him by watching endless TV crime shows and wandering the nearby woods with Jude. He takes it on himself to look for Jude but finds more than he bargains for when he sees a monster near a remote house on a logging road in the woods. Deer Valley is a small community with a strange quirk: pets constantly vanish into the woods. Ahlborn (Within These Walls; The Bird Eater) does a creepily effective job of keeping her monster offstage and out of sight for a good long while, as we get to know Stevie and follow his efforts to find out what happened to Jude. VERDICT The twin horrors--something nasty in the woods and a child gone very wrong--combine here for a deeply chilling read.--MM

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017

Fans of all ages will be enthralled by Ahlborn's latest thriller. When 12-year-old Jude goes missing in the small, quiet town of Deer Valley, OR, the residents are reminded of another incident years ago, when a young boy was found murdered in the surrounding woods. Ahlborn tells this intriguing tale from two points of view, that of Jude's 10-year-old cousin and best friend, Stevie, and that of Rosie, an older woman who lives in the woods. Stevie, an odd, unpopular boy who sees shadow people and has echolalia (a condition that compels him to repeat other people's words), is a likable protagonist who evokes sympathy as he is teased by his stepfather and older brother. His perspective is sometimes naive and often humorous, yet his perceptions are more reliable than those of the adults around him. Suspense steadily builds as Stevie tries to discover what has happened to Jude, all while encountering unfriendly townsfolk; sickly, skittish stray cats; and what is obviously a monster in the woods. With an especially creepy backstory that satisfyingly ties all the elements together, this book evokes a Stephen King novella. VERDICT A fantastically creepy coming-of-age narrative that is sure to have readers clamoring for more titles by this author. A first purchase, especially where horror writers such as Stephen King or Joe Hill are popular.-Sherry J. Mills, Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.