Library Love- Shadow House: The Gathering by Dan Poblocki

Some houses are more than just haunted... they're hungry.

Dash, Dylan, Poppy, Marcus, and Azumi don't know this at first. They each think they've been summoned to Shadow House for innocent reasons. But there's nothing innocent about Shadow House.

Something within its walls is wickedly wrong. Nothing -- and nobody -- can be trusted. Hallways move. Doors vanish. Ghosts appear. Children disappear.

And the way out?

That's disappeared, too...

Enter Shadow House... if you dare.

Don't just read about Shadow House -- explore its haunted depths with the free app!

Goodreads

My Thoughts: This was spooky! Yup! This children's horror story actually gave me the creeps! Some of my students were raving about it and I thought that I should give it a try to see what the hype was all about. Boy, I definitely understand them now!

The story was a little mysterious. Five children received different invitations to go to Larkspur mansion. Orphaned Poppy found a letter from her "aunt" claiming that Poppy was not alone and must go to Larkspur to join her family. Next, there was Marcus who received a letter to attend Larkspur Academy of the Performing Arts to pursue his career as a pianist. Then there was Azumi who believed she got an invitation to attend Larkspur Boarding School. Finally, the twins, Dylan and Dash, received an email to audition for a new movie role at Larkspur Productions. However, things turned when the preteens arrived at the mansion and realized that their invitations were not what they thought they were.

You know, for a middle school book, this was a pretty scary and gruesome book. It was clean literature but there were some violent scenes that made me question whether or not it was suitable for some of my students (I have third graders reading it). For instance, the Special kid with the violin was the one that terrified me the most. He attacked the children without any remorse.  It was too violent.

Though the book made me question the age suitability for young readers, it was very well written. It had been a while that a ghost story had terrified me like this one did, but then again, I only read it at night. I gripped the pages and devoured the book. My heart beat fast at many parts. Many questions were unanswered and sadly, I think I won't learn the answers until I get my hands on the other book.

As a whole, this was a great horror book. It was not only for young readers but adults may enjoy this book as well. The series is accompanied with a free downloadable app that expands on the world (I will review this on a different post). I loved this book and I now want to buy the series for my shelves. I rate it:

This book counts for the Library Love Challenge.