Took
by Mary Downing Hahn Book Review by Miranda Moses (Fraser) ISBN: 978-1-338-11406-5 This is another ghost story by the iconic children's 'horror' author Mary Downing Hahn. I've read a few of her books before and two others have made it into previous Halloween series, so it should come as no shock that I revisit her writing once more. 'Took' is a ghost story of missing children and superstitious tales of an old woman in the woods. To begin with this book surrounds a small family who moved from their rich neighborhood to a rundown town in the middle of nowhere. They hear rumors about their home, how a little girl was "took" from there 50 years ago, but they chalk it up to typical small town superstitions. The parents have trouble adjusting to this new life and so do their two kids, Daniel and Erica. They get picked on in school, their unhappy at home, and tension within their family is growing. But to make it all worse Erica insists someone's calling her name and is terrified of the dark. No one actually believes the seven year old until one day she goes missing. When the whole town seems against them and the evidence is pointing more and more towards an abduction, Daniel must accept that something supernatural has happened here. The quest to bring his sister home may be impossible but he is going to try or die trying. With the help of some unlikely people and maybe even a little magic, that is. In conclusion, it was a good story. I can see how it could be spooky for younger audiences. In fact, as a kid I might have eaten this up. But I honestly just found myself mostly feeling sad throughout the story. The poor family is completely falling apart, even before Erica's disappearance, but afterwards it just felt hopeless. While, of course, there's a good ending to the story. I won't be giving any of that info away. I wanted more suspense and an edge of my seat kind of thrills. So, no, this was not my favorite of Hahn's so far, but it honorably makes the list for Halloween 2019 Book Reviews. Read on my fellow book worms may we one day have Belle's library. And as always links to the author's pages can be found down below.
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hONORABLE MENTIONSThe point of this page is to give books a shout out without a full review. PRIMARILY because I have already previously reviewed books in the series. Archives
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