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A review by iilex
The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki
2.0
I've been reading a lot of middle grade horror/ghost stories lately and Dan Poblocki's books looked right up my alley. You have to admit - the cover art is pretty amazing. Unfortunately, the story itself...wasn't so much.
Even if I haven't been thrilled with all of them, almost all of the middle grade books I've been reading lately have been fairly well-written (and some were crafted extremely well). The Nightmarys had really bad writing, in my opinion, and that was the main problem with this book. I found myself having trouble understanding what was going on while reading and while I at first blamed it on being tired, I quickly realized the problem was the writing. It's weirdly choppy, contains too many clauses, and didn't altogether make sense. I was surprised that this book could have gotten past an editor and was published by a well-known publishing house. You'd think they'd have fixed a little at least...There were multiple problems going on here. The dialogue was laughably bad and unbelievable. And then we have the plot. The main thread of the story was interesting - involving a cursed relic that allows its bearer to control the fears of others. The problem was that there were so many threads that the story completely unraveled. It was a little hard to follow and I wonder if a kid could actually follow it all either.
One of the strangest things about this book was realizing that the "Nightmarys" didn't fit with the plot at all and were mostly irrelevant. But that's the title! And the cover art! But why would the jawbone from an ancient tribe have seemingly Victorian-type ghosts protecting it? Huh? My first thought was that the title "Nightmarys" must have come first with the story following. Reading the acknowledgement at the end made me realize was that I wasn't far off - the author had a "dream" about ghostly little girls and that was the kickoff for the rest of the story. Apparently his original idea got away from him a little, because if you read The Nightmarys you'll see how irrelevant these ghost girls are. It's too bad, because creepy ghost girls are always interesting. What we have instead is a convoluted ghost story with too much happening all at once.
As you can tell, I was not impressed. The Nightmarys was a lot scarier than other middle grade stories I've read lately, so that was a plus (for me). I don't go into a middle grade horror book expecting or even wanting to be scared, but I'm always pleasantly surprised if the author manages to make a book creepy enough to bother adults a little. It wasn't overly scary or anything, but even I felt a chill creep up my spine at some of the imagery (the prelude and interludes were definitely the best parts here). I can see 11 to 14-year-old boys really eating this up. A sensitive child may be overly frightened, however - so proceed with caution. A teen older than 14 probably wouldn't enjoy this much, so ignore those who have tagged this as "young adult." This is a solidly upper middle grade read. And as for grown persons - I'd skip this. There are plenty of superior middle grade horror stories out there and there's no reason to read this one. It's too bad, because I really expected I'd like this. Oh well. 2 out of 5 stars.
Even if I haven't been thrilled with all of them, almost all of the middle grade books I've been reading lately have been fairly well-written (and some were crafted extremely well). The Nightmarys had really bad writing, in my opinion, and that was the main problem with this book. I found myself having trouble understanding what was going on while reading and while I at first blamed it on being tired, I quickly realized the problem was the writing. It's weirdly choppy, contains too many clauses, and didn't altogether make sense. I was surprised that this book could have gotten past an editor and was published by a well-known publishing house. You'd think they'd have fixed a little at least...There were multiple problems going on here. The dialogue was laughably bad and unbelievable. And then we have the plot. The main thread of the story was interesting - involving a cursed relic that allows its bearer to control the fears of others. The problem was that there were so many threads that the story completely unraveled. It was a little hard to follow and I wonder if a kid could actually follow it all either.
One of the strangest things about this book was realizing that the "Nightmarys" didn't fit with the plot at all and were mostly irrelevant. But that's the title! And the cover art! But why would the jawbone from an ancient tribe have seemingly Victorian-type ghosts protecting it? Huh? My first thought was that the title "Nightmarys" must have come first with the story following. Reading the acknowledgement at the end made me realize was that I wasn't far off - the author had a "dream" about ghostly little girls and that was the kickoff for the rest of the story. Apparently his original idea got away from him a little, because if you read The Nightmarys you'll see how irrelevant these ghost girls are. It's too bad, because creepy ghost girls are always interesting. What we have instead is a convoluted ghost story with too much happening all at once.
As you can tell, I was not impressed. The Nightmarys was a lot scarier than other middle grade stories I've read lately, so that was a plus (for me). I don't go into a middle grade horror book expecting or even wanting to be scared, but I'm always pleasantly surprised if the author manages to make a book creepy enough to bother adults a little. It wasn't overly scary or anything, but even I felt a chill creep up my spine at some of the imagery (the prelude and interludes were definitely the best parts here). I can see 11 to 14-year-old boys really eating this up. A sensitive child may be overly frightened, however - so proceed with caution. A teen older than 14 probably wouldn't enjoy this much, so ignore those who have tagged this as "young adult." This is a solidly upper middle grade read. And as for grown persons - I'd skip this. There are plenty of superior middle grade horror stories out there and there's no reason to read this one. It's too bad, because I really expected I'd like this. Oh well. 2 out of 5 stars.