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Oct 12, 2020PimaLib_ChristineR rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
I had heard The House with a Clock in Its Walls recommended as a middle-school scary read but other than that, I went in with no expectations. Never seen the movie, nothing. But I found myself within the first few chapters muttering to myself "I bet this was written in the '70s. This has to have been written in the '70s." Just before writing this review I checked, and sure enough: 1973. This falls firmly in that era where middle school fiction like this was weirdly detached. I was a big fan of The Three Investigators and honestly, I am loathe to go back and have my happy memories destroyed. As for this, the first in a series with 12! entries: the scary bits were lacking any tension and the most we know about Lewis is that he's the chubby kid that isn't good at sports. His parents have died and he is sent to live with his bachelor uncle in New Zebedee, Michigan. He seems to be perfectly fine with his parents' deaths. He has a good cry only once, and we never hear about him trying to adjust. He wants a new friend, and is upset when it doesn't work out, but it's all described through a mesh-screen of adulthood, like an inside nudge and a wink of "oh, we all know how this goes." For an elementary-school audience, this is probably acceptable. Not too scary, but scary enough, and there's certainly plenty of kids who will identify with Lewis, but it's just not up to the standards of youth fiction today which doesn't play down to kids and is probably one of the reasons adults continue to enjoy books written for younger audiences over the last twenty years. It's also some of Gorey's weakest art, like he could barely be bothered. I understand completely.