The Book of Bad Things

August 1, 2014
Grades 5-8 In Poblocki's latest screamfest, a spate of ghostly sightings, grotesque deaths, and disappearing corpses coincides with the arrival of Cassidy, whose annual summer stays with the Tremont family gets off to a rocky start, thanks to fallout from the deaths of Joey Tremont's beloved dog, Lucky, and of reclusive neighbor Ursula, whose house turns out to be stuffed with hoarded possessions and piles of garbage. Eerie doings quickly escalate with glimpses of spectral canine and human figures, odd humming sounds, foul odors, clutching hands, and oozing shadows that take fatal revenge on local residents who have scavenged even minor items from the dumpster in front of Ursula's. Tucking in extracts from Cassidy's carefully kept notebook of scary things #56: ZOMBIE: Imagine a human face whose skin is peeling off in wide sheets to thicken the spookiness, the tale winds to a climax that pits her and three friends against both an outbreak of zombies and an ancient, relentlessly possessive spirit. About midrange on the fright scale, and well stocked with tried-and-true terror tropes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)