The Clackity
by Lora Senf
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2022
288 pages
Middle Grade
Fast paced and creepy, The Clackity is a dark fantasy adventure for middle-grade readers that delivers on its spooky premise. Order it now, so it will be on your shelf come October.
Any book that references Bellairs has got to be on the right track. The cover art’s creepy angles crawling from a gray and orange fog promises a trip through dark forests and a nightmare landscape pursued by spirits threatening worse things waiting.
Following her past the meat grinder with fingers in the drains, Evelyn (Evie Von Rathe) witnesses her Aunt Desdemona disappear into the shadows of the local abandoned slaughterhouse in a town besieged by ghosts.
When she cannot follow, she makes a fair deal with a supernatural creature calling itself The Clackity who gives her directions to bring back her aunt. Evie must travel to the other side of the shock tunnel, visit six houses, (each haunted to be sure,) rescue her Aunt Des… then lead the local boogeyman back to The Clackity!
The catch is, if the deadly John Jeffery Pope catches Evie in the fields of purple grass… things might not end so pleasantly for her. The villain here is something akin to Freddy Kreuger, a serial child killer who has come back in supernatural form to continue his reign of horror. Evie is joined by a shadow sparrow protective in an old religion sort of way, and The Clackity checks up on her progress regularly. What we don’t know is whether the Clackity wants revenge, or to somehow add its uniqueness to the murderous collective.
But first she has to pass through the haunted houses haunted with penny-eyed hollow people, a killer slamming open doors behind her, candy witches, and one who would steal her most precious memories.
Recommended for those who liked Katherine Arden and Lorien Lawrence, and Holly Black’s Doll Bones, (and I noted a tinge of Clive Barker’s Abarat in the clouds as well.)