Readers of all ages love a good spooky story and that can be seen in two books recently added to the Dublin Public Library: “Horrid” by Katrina Leno and “Hide and Seeker” by Daka Hermon.
Although “Horrid” is a young adult novel and “Hide and Seeker” is aimed at younger teens, the books both grapple with similar themes amongst their thrills.
Horrid
By sheer coincidence, I can offer you three separate opinions on “Horrid” since my girlfriend, Wyndi, and I started reading it together right after Sara Gann, here at the office, started reading her own copy.
While we all found things to like about the book, our opinions did differ on certain things.
The novel centers on Jane, a high school senior, who has to move from her California home to Maine following the death of her father, Greer. The reason for the longdistance move is that Greer left Jane and her mother, Ruth bankrupt so the only property they have is Ruth’s childhood home, North Manor, which Ruth has avoided for the majority of Jane’s life.
The large family home immediately creeps Jane out and as she settles into her new life, she realizes that it holds many secrets about her family and maybe even herself.
“Horrid” spends most of its pages building up an atmosphere of mystery. As rooms get ransacked and mysterious messages are left, readers will be left questioning whether there is a supernatural presence or not. Even by the end of the novel, we were split on whether there was actually a ghost in North Manor.
This is because the book is mainly interested in offering insight on trauma, anxiety and anger. The book’s first line, “She couldn’t remember the first book she had eaten.” is meant to be taken literally. Jane has trouble dealing with stress from a young age, so she habitually tears off a piece of a page and chews it slowly before swallowing it. This habit is punctuated later by Jane completely losing control (and sometimes consciousness) whenever her anger proves too much.
These problems eventually tie directly into the novel’s main mystery and are presented with enough realism not to get annoying.
I also really enjoyed the cast of characters with even the school bully getting enough coverage to make her identifiable.
The only frustration found within our group is that Wyndi and Sara both found the story slow to build until the last 100 pages of the 322-page tale moves at a breakneck pace with revelation after revelation. Nobody regretted the read though and it held all our interest enough to finish.
Hide and Seeker
This book does a good job of turning a conventional kids game into something terrifying. The book centers around Justin, a kid whose life was upended when his mother died and one of his best friends, Zee, went missing.
Zee is found after more than a year of absence and Justin along with best friends, Nia and Lyric, are invited to a birthday party to integrate him back into the group. However, Zee is changed, often speaking in rhymes and paranoid that something is after him.
While waiting for Zee to enter the backyard for his own party, the rest of the kids are joined by twins Carla and Quincy and the rich kid in the class, Shae, for a game of hide and seek.
Almost immediately, things seem to go wrong with the game and Zee panics upon seeing Shae when he leaves the house.
The kids all wake up from the same nightmare that night to find that Shae is reported missing and she was last seen at a camp that was too far away for her to have been at the party. Strange things start to happen and the world changes in nightmarish ways as the kids realize that something has pulled them into a dangerous game- The Seeker.
“Hide and Seeker” is the kind of book I would have loved at 13, full of fun characters and spooky setpieces, all set against the trauma of how to deal with the loss of a loved one and how certain things can change someone.
The book is a speedier read than “Horrid” and less prone to melodrama, although both hit upon grief and trauma in their own way. It is also much more action-packed.
Both books are easy recommendations for teens looking for creepy stories that have some messages to share.
These are just two of many books available at the Dublin Public Library. It is located at 206 W. Blackjack and open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Paul Gaudette is the managing editor at the Dublin Citizen and can be reached at 445-2515 and publisher@dublincitizen.com.