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  • The Nightmare House

The Nightmare House

Author
Sarah Allen
Publication Date
August 08, 2023
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  6th − 8th
Language
English
The Nightmare House
Description

From Sarah Allen, the acclaimed author of What Stars Are Made Of and Breathing Underwater, comes a chilling middle-grade tale of fear, friendship, and finding courage even in the darkest of moments. In this monster story that's also an allegory for relentless anxiety, see how far a penny's worth of hope will take you when you enter The Nightmare House.

I saw a person with blank, colorless eyes . . . and this time, I wasn't dreaming. Penny Hope used to be brave, but that was before she met the Fear Maker. Years later, he still haunts her nightmares--a tall, thin man with red eyes, in a haunted house in the woods, who devours human souls and leaves their eyes hollow and empty. Penny's beloved grandma tells her to write down these nightmares as poems in her notebook. But then Penny starts seeing blank-eyed people in the waking world, too. She's the only one who notices. As more people around her fall prey to the Fear Maker, Penny must gather her courage once and for all to save the souls of those she loves. With the help of a magic garden and a new friend, she ventures to the Fear Maker's house. But the house is a labyrinth of shadows and tricks--and the Fear Maker's fun is just beginning. Can a pocketful of sunflower seeds and a notebook filled with poems be enough to defeat a master of nightmares? And if Penny sets foot in the Fear Maker's house, will she ever leave?

Publication date
August 08, 2023
Genre
Fiction
Page Count
272
ISBN-13
9781250869869
Lexile Measure
750
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
BISAC categories
JUV039050 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Emotions & Feelings
JUV018000 - Juvenile Fiction | Horror
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
Paranormal fiction
Psychological fiction
Fear
Haunted houses
Self-realization
Anxiety
Novels

Publishers Weekly

White-cued 11-year-old Penny Hope's anxiety manifests as a real-life monster under her bed in this ethereal novel by Allen (Breathing Underwater). For the past four years, Penny's anxieties have been heightened by the presence of the Fear Maker, a creature of "nightmare and shadow" who lives beneath her bed. But now the Fear Maker, having become a corporeal entity, is stealing the "soul, their them-ness" of the people in her town. Only Penny can see her soulless neighbors' "blank, colorless, empty eyes," resulting in intense feelings of isolation. When her supportive poet grandmother encourages her to write about her fears and introduces her to homeschooled Indian-cued peer Aarush Banerjee, Penny feels as if she's found a bright spot. As the Fear Maker's power intensifies, however, Penny learns that to destroy him, she must "pick one thing you're afraid of, and do it." She resolves to face her fears by joining Aarush in a poetry contest, hoping to find the right words to overcome her anxieties. Poetic prose and visceral emotion infuse realistic depth into this mood-driven, allegorical portrayal of mental illness. Stark b&w illustrations by Hewitt employ a photo negative effect to accentuate Penny's brooding poems. Ages 10-12. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (Aug.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

ALA/Booklist

Allen deals in both beauty and terror, rendering this a sophisticated choice for horror readers.

Sarah Allen
Sarah Allen is the author of What Stars Are Made Of and Breathing Underwater, as well as poems for kids published in places like Cicada, The Caterpillar, and more. Born and raised in Utah, she received an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University, and now calls the Midwest home. She spends her non-writing time watching David Attenborough documentaries and blasting show-tunes, which helps keep her Fear Maker at bay.
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