Source: preordered purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.
The Clackity is a middle grade horror novel by Lora Senf.
Reminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces, this “delightfully eerie” (Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows) middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must rescue her aunt by entering a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences.
Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.
There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls. Will she ever find Des, or is The Clackity planning something far more sinister?
I bought The Clackity because it's a middle grade horror novel and the synopsis sounded awesome. In The Clackity, Evie's aunt has disappeared and Evie must enter a supernatural world filled with challenges to get her back.
I had managed to talk myself into thinking The Clackity had something to do with Halloween. I guess because it has the perfect Halloween cover with orange and black and greys and a wonderfully spooky illustration. The Clackity can definitely be read at any time, though. It's not set at Halloween, it just has a wonderful vibe to the book that does make it perfect for spooky season.
The illustration isn't limited to just the cover. The entire book has those awesome spooky illustrations sprinkled throughout the chapters. It really is a beautiful book.
As for the story, The Clackity is creepy and imaginative. In fact, The Clackity is so imaginative, I think it would appeal to fans of Catherine M. Valente. In the world that Evie enters, she has to go through all of these different settings and encounter different ghosts and monsters. It reminded me quite a bit of Coraline as well.
In the end, my rating for The Clackity is entirely subjective. I feel like I need to offer up some bigger explanation for why I'm only giving this three stars, but the truth is I loved getting to enter Senf's imaginative world and I loved the relationship between Evie and her aunt. Three stars means I liked it, and it just fits for me here.
3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★ ★
Wonderful review of this book! It looks Halloweenish to me too!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It totally has that Halloween vibe.
DeleteI love the cover for this one. Thanks for the great review.
ReplyDeleteI do, too!!
DeleteI totally understand about the rating. Sometimes you just feel a book is a certain rating but you can't really explain why😁
ReplyDeleteIt's so subjective!
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