I’ve been sharing ways authors effectively create suspense—ways to keep you turning the pages of their stories. Today I bring you creepy and scary.
I’m usually not at all a fan of scary stories. I mean it. I refuse to watch scary movies, not just near bedtime, but anytime. My imagination takes scary images and blows them out of all proportion, until they echo around in my brain. Hey, you’re talking to a girl who never saw the movie “Jaws”—just previews, hearing others talk about it, and the famous soundtrack made me afraid to swim in swimming pools for years! See what I mean? Way beyond logical.
Book 2: Have you read it yet?
Piper Pan and Her Merry Band rates pretty low in the creepy and scary category, although I have to admit that a dragon inhaling people does qualify as scary. Pearl the Black brings an edge of scary into book two. (Have you read it yet?) And there’s a touch of creepy swirling in my brain as book three dreams itself through me!
Today’s book recommendation is Doll Bones, by Holly Black. I picked it up because of an enthusiastic recommendation from Caitlin at my local bookstore. Holly Black is best known as cocreator of The Spiderwick Chronicles.
I agree with Caitlin—Doll Bones is a worthy and spell-binding read—creepy and scary is interlaced with incredibly strong characterization—a trio of friends who are transforming each other’s lives. You know how I love friendship as a theme, especially those of “oddball” kids. Here’s the summary:
“Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.”
The power of imagination in these kids’ lives is tangible—the foundation of their friendship is built on it. When their quest becomes a real-life one, the strange supernatural twists add to the drama of the schism their friendship is facing. The tale is told from Zach’s point of view—he has trouble at home with his here-again gone-again father. When his dad throws out Zach’s action figures to teach him to be tougher, Zach quits the imaginary adventure game rather than admit his father’s action. But for the real-life quest, the friendship would be ruined.
If you are as sensitive as I am to scary stories, you can make this a daytime read. But Doll Bones is too good to pass up, and not so scary that it will haunt your dreams. Happy reading!