Nightmares!

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 22, 2015

Review

This book is by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller. Segel is a well-known actor, at least for those of us older than middle school. This book is for middle grade readers, so his name may have no added draw. But that's not a problem: I was drawn to this book from the cover with its looming mansion and its warning to "watch your back". I continued to pick it up because of the characters and the wacky situations in which they find themselves, particularly in the Netherworld. The main character, Charlie, has lost his mother and now has a stepmother who he is convinced is a witch. As Charlie becomes more and more absorbed in his darkness, he is increasingly susceptible to nightmares. His life is, in fact, becoming a living nightmare, and it's affecting all of the other children in Cypress Creek. Then his nightmares accidentally open a portal to the Netherworld allowing some nightmares to cross over to the living world. The story was a page turner, gripping, poignant, exciting, dark, creative, and funny. The illustrations were not great; if they had been better, they could have enhanced the story with some added visuals, but they didn't take anything away, and the picture on page 309 of Charlie hugging his mother was quite nice. Segel taps into a common experience, and he holds nothing back - one of his characters has a mother who suffers from depression and it's her nightmare that she, too, will succumb. But all of the situations are manageable for a middle school reader. Highly recommend.

Overall Book Score: excellent