Wednesday, September 5, 2012

September Book Review Club


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@Barrie Summy

Ooo, look. I'm blogging again. The Book Review Club took the summer off, and I, too, am using that as my excuse. But now it's fall and it's time to face the music. And what better way to start the countdown for Halloween than the first book of a scary series?

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By Robert Liparulo
Thomas Nelson, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, my little town’s tiny gem of a library—always on the alert to get kids addicted to books anytime, anyhow—got in all six books in Robert Diparulo’s Dreamhouse Kings series and displayed them prominently in its YA section.

The series has been moving like hotcakes, the librarian told me. Curious, I put my name on the waiting list for House of Dark Shadows, which starts the series. (And, yes, there was a movie of that name back in 1970, based on the 1960s horror soap “Dark Shadows.” Which spun off into yet another movie this year, starring Johnny Depp.) (Which wasn’t so hot, by all accounts.)

This House of Dark Shadows is definitely not great literature—it’s not even grammatical in places—but I can see the appeal. At thirteen, I would have been eating this up.

Fifteen-year-old Xander King reluctantly moves with his family from L.A. to the tiny Northern California burg of Pineville, where his dad will be the high school principal. In spite of himself, he’s intrigued by the dream house the family moves into: a spooky old manse full of noise distortions, mysterious footprints and, you guessed it, dark shadows.

We already know the house is bad news, because we’ve been treated to a prologue in which a gigantic, sweaty guy carries a struggling woman down a long hallway, pursued by her young sons. Easily repelling their desperate attempts to rescue their mother, the man carries her through a door into a place full of bright light. The door slams behind them, “separating her from her family forever.”

Prologues, I’m told, should be used sparingly. But this one packs a punch: From chapter one on, you’re alternately waiting for the explanation and urging Xander and his younger brother to be much more careful as they explore the house.

Liparulo ups the ante early on, when Xander learns that the house has been unoccupied ever since the mother of the house disappeared thirty or forty years ago, followed by her husband and children. Town lore says the husband reacted to his wife’s disappearance by spiriting the kids away someplace, killing them, then taking his own life.

Xander and family do experience the house’s weird capabilities, and we do get the beginnings of an explanation for it all. But only the beginnings. One frustration of this book is that it is little more than a prologue itself, with a conclusion that barely justifies the term. This struck me as both cynical and lazy, to tell the truth.

Still, House of Dark Shadows is a page-turner, and probably a gem for reluctant readers. Although it’s classified as “young adult”—Amazon has it as age 13 and up—I didn’t see anything in here that would put it out of the reach of a middle-grade reader who could withstand the Goosebumps series.

I almost put this book down halfway, because the writing wasn’t that great and the characters were okay but not hugely compelling. It was the mystery of the house that kept me going, and may even get me into the next book.

Drat you, Robert Liparulo. 


6 comments:

Sarah Laurence said...

Doesn't sound like my kind of book but I can see why it would hook a reader. Thanks for saving me from that. Excellent review!

Linda McLaughlin said...

Great review, Ellen. I can sew how this will definitely appeal to the Goose Bumps crowd, of which my nephew is a card-carrying member!

Btw, I hate these captchas. So hard to read with my bad eyesight.

Jeff Spring said...

Writing not that great? I thought it was fantastic, and if you read any of Robert Liparulo's other books, you'll see just how talented he is. (He does have a unique style, which I love, but I wouldn't confuse that with bad writing.) That he hooked you shows something's working.

I read the whole Dreamhouse Kings series and loved it. I think they get better and more exciting with each book, but a friend can't decide if she likes the 1st or the fifth best. My family read them, too, and everyone's hooked. They're just interesting stories (really, one long story) well told.

I'm working through his other books and I love them. Well, I LOVED The 13th Tribe and only liked Comes a Horseman (a little too violent for my tastes).

Ellen Booraem said...

Writing style is a matter of taste to some extent, as I know only too well. And I'm sure this guy is very talented. But I did keep getting distracted by little writing errors--floating participial phrases, that kind of thing. (I'm jinxing myself saying that, of course, because none of us is perfect.) Also, the mother and kids being so unquestioningly willing to move into this scary house didn't ring true to me.

Ellen Booraem said...

Sorry, Linda! I have trouble with captchas, too. I often have to reload. But without them you get a lot more spam commentary, so I guess they're a necessary evil.

Barrie said...

Hmmm....I can think of a couple of kids who would enjoy a book like this....especially at this time of year. Thanks for reviewing, Ellen!