My Review: I have a very vivid memory of a day in fourth grade when I was supposed to be doing my math but instead was avidly reading Wait Til Helen Comes. Mrs. Balginy (who I just looked up on Facebook) came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I kid you not—I jumped up and screamed so much because I was just totally in the book zone and it was right at the part that Helen is coming out and when she touched me…well. I still remember that fear. If you’ve read Wait Til Helen Comes, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That book is scary! It’s still creepy! That being said, as soon as I saw that my son brought home a copy of All the Lovely Bad Ones I just had to read it because I wanted to be that creeped out again! And it’s Halloween season! So it was time.
This book is scary, just as one would hope from Mary
Downing Hahn. There’s just something awesome about an author whose total goal
is to scare children out of their wits. I was pleasantly surprised to be scared
by this book as well. Its one thing to build up a book in your head and then go
back and read it again only to be disappointed, but its super cool when you go
back and it’s just as scary and cool as you remember. I had not read this book
before, but it certainly is similar enough in its feeling to Wait Til Helen Comes that I knew I’d be
disappointed if it was totally lame and not scary at all. Luckily, it lived up
to my expectations and was totally creepy full of a nightmare-inducing ending
that can only be the workings of an author hell-bent on scary the crap out of
little children. Which again. Is awesome. This book was actually really fun to
read on a dark and stormy night, which is why I’m putting this review so close
to Halloween. It’s a short enough and easy enough read that you still have time
to go get it and scare yourself for the season! (It can’t be just me that does
that, right?) I like to have some good mood reading to bring me into one of my
favorite holidays. It’s not a good Halloween without some creepy ghosts.
One thing I love about this book is that the ghosts are
legit. I always feel let down when a “ghost” is not really a ghost, rather some
ridiculous misunderstanding. If I want to be scared, I want it to be legit! And
these ghosts are cool and scary and definitely bring some nightmares. The story
itself is pretty cool and from what I remember of Wait Til Helen Comes, (you know, from a few decades ago) this plot
was a little more complex than some of her other work. The back story was there
and was actually sad and tragic and also super scary.
I liked this book, obviously, but I don’t want you to go
into it thinking that if you’re a hardcore ghost story reader that you
shouldn’t read this in place of adult ghost story books. No. This is merely a
book that is short enough and accessible enough that you could squeeze it in
RIGHTNOW before Halloween is over and still enjoy your normal reading seasonal
reading.
My Rating: 3.5
stars
For the sensitive
reader: This is a children’s book and therefore the language is clean and there
is no sexual content, but there is some violence discussed.
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