The Stone Child

by Dan Poblocki

I'm really debating between 3 and 4 stars on this one. I enjoyed the book, thought it was inventive, captivating, sufficiently creepy, and satisfyingly ended. Maybe it deserves 4, but I'm just not overwhelmingly amazed by it, or left thinking about it for long after the end, although I can't put my finger on why.

The Stone Child is the story of a young boy named Eddie who moves to the mysterious small town of Gatesweed with his mother and father. His mom is an aspiring author and his dad deals in antiques. Upon their arrival to town Eddie learns that the author of his favorite scary books, Nathanial Olmstead, lived in the very same town. However, he also hears rumors of strange creatures and the "Olmstead Curse" that might have something to do with the author's disappearance 13 years ago. As Eddie makes friends and begins to try to find out more about the curse, things start getting creepier, and Eddie and his friends begin to be afraid that the creatures from Olmstead's books are real. The group must work together to solve the mystery of Olmstead's disappearance before it's too late to save him, or the town.

As I mentioned, this book does have a nice creepy vibe to it. It's written for kids, and if I was a kid I would be thoroughly scared. As an adult, only slightly. I loved the history to the curse and Olmstead's disappearance. I would have liked a little more puzzle-solving than there was, I also would have liked a little more length to the story. I think a few more pages of suspense during the scary creature sightings would have added a lot - but I guess what I'm wishing for is for this book to be geared more to young adults than to children. Some portions were very predictable and the characters were pretty simplistic and flat. However, the ending was different then I imagined (I had 2 scenarios worked out in my head), so that was a nice surprise.

Still debating that 4th star, but for now I'm sticking with 3.