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A review by howlinglibraries
The Thing Under Your Bed by Stephen Kozeniewski
3.5
The Thing Under Your Bed offers a child's perspective of the classic terror that plagued most of us for years (and still creeps into some of our minds as adults): the horrible creatures that might hide under the bed, waiting for us to unsuspectingly dangle a limb over the edge so it can grab us and yank us down into oblivion.
It's such a fun story that brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, because I was definitely one of those "run and jump into bed so the thing under it can't grab my ankle" kids who had an imagination much too big for any nightlight to ward off. On the other hand, there's also a lot of heartbreak in this little tale, between depictions of an abusive alcoholic mother, a cheating father, and a shocking amount of violence against animals.
Overall, I liked The Thing Under Your Bed and considered it a solid 4-star read until reaching the ending, which felt very abrupt! I was admittedly disappointed with the final scene and knocked off half a star for it, but I still recommend this story and will definitely be checking out more of Stephen's work in the future.
Thank you to the author for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
It's such a fun story that brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, because I was definitely one of those "run and jump into bed so the thing under it can't grab my ankle" kids who had an imagination much too big for any nightlight to ward off. On the other hand, there's also a lot of heartbreak in this little tale, between depictions of an abusive alcoholic mother, a cheating father, and a shocking amount of violence against animals.
Overall, I liked The Thing Under Your Bed and considered it a solid 4-star read until reaching the ending, which felt very abrupt! I was admittedly disappointed with the final scene and knocked off half a star for it, but I still recommend this story and will definitely be checking out more of Stephen's work in the future.
Thank you to the author for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death