The Ghoul Next Door

July 1, 2021

Gr 4-8-When Grey takes a shortcut to school through the cemetery, he trips and loses a school project in a mysterious hole in the ground. In the days that follow, creepy events plague him until he finally discovers that he has made contact with a ghoul named Lavinia. While the two forge a friendship, Grey's human friend Marshall becomes increasingly unsettled at their relationship. Unfortunately, ghouls are not meant to befriend humans, so Lavinia and Grey have to save Marshall from a terrifying fate in the underworld. The fast-paced story offers just the right balance of scares and intrigue. The characters will resonate with young readers also grappling with difficulties with school, friendships, and parents. The full-color illustrations are marvelous, and the journey to the underworld is awash in eerie greens and blues. The dialogue between the characters is natural and moves quickly. While this seems to be a stand-alone offering, readers will want more stories from this spooky crew. Grey is Asian; Marshall is white. VERDICT Fans of macabre tales, such as the "Amulet" series or Vera Brosgol's Anya's Ghost, will delight in this charming comic.-Ellen Conlin, Naperville P.L., IL

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2021
Grades 4-8 "A monster stole my project" isn't a very convincing excuse for showing up to class empty-handed, but Grey knows something grabbed his carefully built model of Armitage Cemetery after he tripped with it in that very graveyard. That same night, he wakes up to find a hunched, hissing figure resembling Gollum in his bedroom for a heart-stopping instant. Farris' mixed-media illustrations emphasize ink lines and blotchy watercolors, and her shadow-work drums up a spooky atmosphere when the story calls for one--like when being stalked by a monster. Grey eventually decides to make contact and discovers the creature is a nice ghoul named Lavinia. Cheerfully grotesque, Lavinia's upbeat personality stands in entertaining contrast to her decaying, skeletal appearance. A friendship quickly forms between her and Grey, and she teaches him the unbelievable history of his town and what it has to do with ghouls and the Ander's Landing 1696 witch hunt. Imaginative with the right number of chills, this blend of history and the supernatural will appeal to those interested in the monstrous.

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May 15, 2021
A cemetery-obsessed kid finds himself in ghoulish company. On his way to school with his friend Marshall, Grey splits off to take a shortcut through the cemetery. Grey trips, accidentally dropping his school project--a diorama of the cemetery--into an open gravesite. Before he can get it back, a clawlike hand drags the diorama into the shadows with a "HsssSSSsss." Grey high-tails it out of there and goes to school empty-handed. That night, that very creature visits Grey in his room and disappears when spotted. Grey finds the diorama on his doorstep not only intact, but improved. Next comes a series of strange gifts. When accosted, the gift giver--a young ghoul named Lavinia--warns that the "cemetery's not safe" for "surface-dwellers." But when the other ghouls threaten people important to Grey, Grey must brave the Kingdom of the Dead. What--and where--have Grey and his new "ghoul-friend" gotten themselves into? More macabre than spine-tingling, this fast-paced blend of humor and horror is essentially an against-the-odds friendship story. Though the quality of Farris' watercolor art alone distinguishes it from other full-color graphic novels, her skeletal, shadowy silhouettes are wonderfully (and unforgettably) nightmarish. Bunn's ghoul lore offers a fresh alternate post-Salem witch trials narrative. Visual cues code Grey as biracial, with a mom of color and a White dad; Marshall presents White. A sequel will follow. A fun story with art that'll knock readers dead. (Graphic horror. 8-12)

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