Tales to Keep You Up at Night

A while after Amelia’s grandmother disappears, Amelia finds a library book in the attic as she and her mom are cleaning it out for the sale of the house. The book comes with a warning—”Do not read this book”—but Amelia’s curiosity is piqued, especially when the library denies any claims to the book.

Of course, Amelia overlooks the warning and starts reading. There are tales about an old woman whose birthday celebration goes terribly wrong, a family member who’s confined to the attic, a dinner meal long past its freshness date, and more. The more Amelia reads, the more she starts to notice similarities between the book and her life and to wonder if there might an explanation for her grandmother’s disappearance caught in the pages.

Easily as good as Poblocki’s The Stone Child or The Nightmarys, this tale deftly weaves the scary stories Amelia is reading into her life. The tales are deliciously horrific and tantalizingly varied to fit a large range of horror readers’ interests. Readers who enjoy Mary Downing Hahn will want to pick this one up, then finish all the rest of Poblocki’s horrific tales.