Beatrice Beecham’s Houseful of
Horrors by Dave
Jeffery is a little bit of a conundrum for me, sort of a no man’s land of
fiction. My assumption is that this is
some level of children’s book, but I can’t discern what kid would like this book. It doesn’t have a multi sensory
experience or a wildly engaging story.
It is a very low energy read that I don’t feel would appeal to many kids in this age that offers a plethora of wonderful choices..
Beatrice
Beecham is a sleuthy high school girl with a group of friends referred to as
the Newshounds. The team investigates paranormal phenomenon in the small town of
Dorsal Fin. This book features four
short stories of their adventures.
The only one that I enjoyed was the first one, Halloween Haunting, and I
really loved it. The rest of the stories
were unremarkable. The pages are peppered with references to pop culture and history that seem more aimed at adults.
Beatrice is known for her culinary interest and skill, but her love of cooking is lost one me when she has conversations with a group of celebrity chefs in her head. The result of these mental meetings is that she gains some insight, but again, kids won't know the chefs and probably won't read much longer.
Halloween
Haunting has several vivid elderly characters that enthralled me in a story
that kids would have little interest in. However, the folksy description of everything got in
the way of the plot at times. The
emotional energy of the elderly protagonists was beautiful and created great tension. Then I was utterly disappointed by the
abrupt, unsatisfying ending. I would
love to see this story retooled for adults.
Perhaps
Beatrice’s other books are a different story entirely, but Houseful of Horrors
gets two severed heads. Since it is
aimed at younger people, they are stuffed and cute.
Heads Will
Roll,
Everette
Bell
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