Book review - The Stars Did Wander Darkling

 Title: The Stars Did Wander Darkling

Author: Colin Meloy

Genre: horror

Similar books: Monsters in the Mist by Juliana Brandt

                      Dead Flip by Sara Farizan

Rating:

 

a good level of tension

 

Summary (provided by publisher): Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies.
All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. An odd man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an ax chopping in the middle of the night.
He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.
Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late. . . .

My opinion: This book is being compared to "Stranger Things" and with good reason. Not only does it share a time period and a cast of middle school kids banding together, it shares the same sort of atmosphere. We have a deep, ancient evil, reminiscent of Lovecraft. The town is an increasingly unsettling place, the kids the only ones who seem to be aware that something is wrong. It's pretty standard middle grade horror stuff. There are a number of rather strange details and the characters are not as well developed as I might have preferred. But the set up is a decent one and makes for good reading, especially for a kid interested in details off the beaten path.