Scan barcode
A review by lonelybeatnik
The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
4.0
Jake Baker is kind of your everyman dweeb on the schoolyard. Though new kids in town flock to him and his friendliness every summer as they move in, by the time school starts they've moved on to a more popular crowd intent on punishing Jake for his weight, interests, and fear. Complicating his life further is his crazy uncle Cal who runs Niagara Falls iconic Occultorium, the curio shop filled with monkeys' paws and ouiji boards. This summer starts no differently: two new kids in town find and befriend Jake. But the summer ends with a lot more than Jake could have expected.
You know, I had some mixed feelings about this story. It has a lot of the elements of a classic coming of age story that you expect, but with some strange twists and turns. Dove Yellowbird presents as a great femme fatale that really brings out a lot of Jake. I resonated with a lot of the feelings Jake has to explore there. And the moments of growth really had me cheering for the guy.
Honestly, I didn't find the book as worth it until the very end, though. Davidson does a great job of tying up the loose strings, both the ones that had been bothering me and a lot of pieces that I didn't even notice.
A final note: I saw that the book's description tried to tie it to Stranger Things, but apart from a few ghost stories told by Uncle Cal, the similarities end at "Teenagers in the 80s in a nothing town". If you're looking for a bit more paranormal, you'll probably be disappointed. I still thought it was well worth the read, though.
You know, I had some mixed feelings about this story. It has a lot of the elements of a classic coming of age story that you expect, but with some strange twists and turns. Dove Yellowbird presents as a great femme fatale that really brings out a lot of Jake. I resonated with a lot of the feelings Jake has to explore there. And the moments of growth really had me cheering for the guy.
Honestly, I didn't find the book as worth it until the very end, though. Davidson does a great job of tying up the loose strings, both the ones that had been bothering me and a lot of pieces that I didn't even notice.
A final note: I saw that the book's description tried to tie it to Stranger Things, but apart from a few ghost stories told by Uncle Cal, the similarities end at "Teenagers in the 80s in a nothing town". If you're looking for a bit more paranormal, you'll probably be disappointed. I still thought it was well worth the read, though.