Give Me Something Good to Eat

June 17, 2024
A decades-old witch’s spell holds a small town in peril in this sardonic and terrifying thriller by Gillespie (One by One, for adults), a children’s debut. Seventh grader Mason Miller, an Evil Dead enthusiast and resident of Pearl, N.C., is suspicious of his town’s fanatical devotion to Halloween night. Even close confidant Serge—a charismatic, athletic foil to Mason’s brooding nerd persona—shrugs off Mason’s insistence that each year a child disappears and is scrubbed from the town’s collective memory. When Mason’s nine-year-old
sister Meg is snatched by a scarecrow, the boys, along with two other classmates, give chase and find themselves pulled into a gruesome monster realm known as UnderPearl. The quartet’s race to find Meg before she succumbs to a witch’s spell lends itself to an effective and well-worn adventure narrative with a thoughtfully rendered resolution that gives an otherwise familiar tale some unexpected panache. Gillespie’s writing shines, however, in the shiver-inducing descriptions of the ghouls the team encounter, including “oddly cute” skinless blobs, a reluctant pumpkin-headed henchman, and, in one showstopping scene of cosmic horror, eyeless triplets. Serge is described as having “dark-brown” skin; Mason reads as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Aimee Ashcraft, Brower Literary.

June 15, 2024
Mason Miller and his friends take on a dangerous mission to save his little sister--and their town--from the clutches of an evil witch. Halloween is a celebration like no other in Pearl, North Carolina, with loads of decorations and epic trick-or-treating. But something sinister always happens during this grand tradition, and Mason seems to be the only one who notices. Each year, a child goes missing, never to return, and completely forgotten by everyone in the town. This Halloween, it's Mason's 9-year-old sister, Meg, who vanishes. Desperate to find her, seventh grader Mason enlists the help of friends Serge, Becca, and Mari. The kids find themselves in UnderPearl, a dangerous world full of monsters--and a witch who's eager to drain the life from Meg. Gillespie's terrifying world is imaginative and spine-tingling. The creepy characters are original, as interesting as they are scary. Mr. Crow, a delightful creature who's a larger-than-life scarecrow with a flaming jack-o'-lantern head, becomes a surprising, meaningful addition to the story. Though the motivations of some characters and plot points feel flimsy, the richness of UnderPearl's worldbuilding and the likable characters make this a worthy read for young horror fans. Mason and Becca present white; Serge has dark-brown skin, and Mari is Japanese American. An immersive, well-imagined world with plenty of spooky bits. (Horror. 9-12)

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