Twelve-year-old Joe Ferber, his sister Sadie, and their parents have just moved into a house that has all the hallmarks of a horror movie—tombstones in the basement, a creepy doll lying around, strange noises in the wall, and so on. As Joe tries to fall asleep on the first night, his nightlight begins to flash and change colors, and the creepy doll appears in his bed … and then twelve-year-old Shawn Hannigan wakes up from a dream.
Shawn and his little sister, Addie, are seemingly living in the same house with their mother. But when they arrive at their new school for the first day, the teachers are all wearing animal masks, and the principal’s office is pitch black and full of noises. At the end of the day, a stranger claiming to be Shawn’s mom picks him up and tells him he doesn’t have a sister …
As more and more strange things happen to each of them, Shawn and Joe have to figure out what is real, and what is a nightmare.
What could be scarier (and more frustrating!) than being a kid who is the only one who notices there is something wrong with the house your parents call a fixer upper when you know it's just evil! That is where the story begins, with one boy who is powerless to get his family to see sense.
This was such a fun story. It is an amusing and spooky tale, whether you grab it for your middle-grade readers or for yourself if you are still a kid at heart.
The author states he got the idea to write a novel that included everyone's favorite fears while eating an everything bagel. He succeeded! There's nothing missing here. Nightmares, a basement graveyard, living dolls, weird teachers, and more, all wrapped up and waiting for anyone who dares to venture onto Nightmare Street, a place you won't find on a map but is all too real for the kids who call it home.
There are multiple tidbits sprinkled through for adults that may go undetected by kids (I'm still laughing at the Real Housewives of Antarctica). Adults who read Goosebumps when they were kids will notice the nods to that book series.
If you're looking for a book that's fun for all ages, this is it.
My thanks to Blackstone Publishing for the e-ARC
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