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The Little Scary Book is a collection of ten original bone-chilling stories. Kevin Duncan's debut features youth, mostly teens, as his principal characters. While the stories' settings and plots differ vastly, all have common elements. Besides principal casting, other elements include a familial presence and a wide variety of monsters that the youth have to confront. Duncan pens creepy tales of things that go bump in the night. Key to this third person narratives is a combination of a well-developed cast and familiar environs—all set within bizarre events. The author keeps his narratives edgy and flowing by throwing in plenty of twists and turns, making it difficult for readers to anticipate outcomes.
Particularly unique to Duncan's writing style are the depictions of his monsters, and unfailingly, each tale reveals the true monsters therein. In "Hoo-Hayhay!," six-year-old Tabitha hopefully learns her Tooth Fairy lesson, while Charlie understands, first hand, the importance of changing clocks in "Spring Forward, Leap Back." An abduction turns into an opportunity for thirteen-year-old Emma in "Schreck." Garner is about to have a rude awakening when he cleans his room in "Badbugs," and Greig has no idea what will transpire when he dresses as a scarecrow in "Darkly Deane." While in "One Big Thing," Christmas doesn't exactly turn out the way Elizabeth expects. There is a frightening connection between laziness and sofas, as siblings Louise and Martin find out in "The Five-Toed Sofa." In "Shade of Darkness Hide," Alex faces his worst fears, while Amy has her own New Year's Eve celebration, so to speak, in "Rat-a-tat-tat!" And Joey has to determine who the real parent is in "One Adult, One Child."
Displaying a cross between Neil Gaiman and scripts from The Twilight Zone, Duncan's storytelling will keep readers sitting on the edge of their seats from beginning to end.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review