Review: House "Scared The Crap Out Of Me As A Child"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

This book scared the crap out of me as a child.

So in re-reading this book this time, all these years later, I wanted to see if it would scare me again.

It didn’t. But it’s a really enjoyable book, nonetheless, and I appreciate that young-Amy read it at such an impressionable age. I think it may have warped my young brain JUST enough. Well-played, book.

There’s also a whole plotline that I think explains why I loved this book to distraction as a kid – Lewis is chubby and new in town, and he tries desperately to make friends. People call him names and refuse to let him play sports with them (because he, like young, and also current, Amy, is TERRIBLE at them.) He’s so desperate to make friends that he makes some really terrible decisions in the process. I’m pretty sure this resonated with little lonely Amy, organizing her books according to the Dewey Decimal system rather than hanging out with other kids her age.

I found out while reading this book it’s the first in a series. How did I not know this as a kid? I think maybe discovering what happens next in Lewis’ life might be in order.

I don’t know how obscure this book is – you get a lot of hits for it when you put it into Google – but it’s part of my strange little childhood, so that’s almost as good, I think.

Plus, Weird Beard. I mean, come on. You have to love a book where someone’s friend calls them Weird Beard.

 
LucyFootball

BookSnobbery