Source: Goodreads
May Bird lives in a mansion. It is old, and the only remaining building in town. She likes to explore the rundown square, as well as the woods that surrounds them. She hates school and the wall of briars that impedes her exploration of the forest. She also hates the ghost that comes to her room every night and watches her. Her mother can’t see him and wants to send her away from Briery Swamp to a boarding school somewhere in upstate New York. Everything changes when May Bird finds a letter, addressed to her, in the 50-year-old ruins of the Biery Swamp post office. Now a walk in the woods could change the course of her life, and death, forever. May Bird, her cat Somber Kitty, and the ghost are the only ones who can save the world of the dead.
I picked this one up at the library in 2016 simply because it had ‘ever after’ in the title. I like fairytales, alright? But this book is no fairytale. In fact, it took me a while to read its 300 pages because I kept scaring myself. I don’t do creepy or scary, and this has a decent helping of both, with a bunch of gross on the side. Nevertheless, once I got into it, I became completely sucked in. I could never have invented a place like the Ever After. It’s just not my style. But the fact that this world exists fascinates me to no end. It’s so perfectly detailed, and the writing is perfect. The trials that May Bird faces in this first book of the trilogy astounded me, and I laughed and cried and freaked out at varying points. Let me just say, for the record, that it’s hard to read with your eyes covered.
In all honesty, the book isn’t really that scary. I’m just a scaredy-cat. I hate being scared. I don’t do scary movies or scary books. I stopped watching the film of Stephen King’s It halfway through because my friends fell asleep and I was too scared to finish it alone. The only time I don’t get scared is when I’m protecting someone else. Then I can be brave. But reading scary books is not something I necessarily enjoy doing. I didn’t grow up reading the Goosebumps series because the covers scared me, but I’d guess that this is probably on par, especially since it came out a mere three years after the first Goosebumps book.
The point of view alternates irregularly between May Bird and her cat Somber Kitty, who end up in the land of the dead, known as the Ever After. We’re given to believe that live people used to visit frequently, but that since Bo Cheevil has come to power, everything has gone to Hell in a handbasket. The ghouls are escaping their pit in the dead sea, and the Boogie Man has been operating with an iron fist (and some giant dogs). The addition of a prophecy and a mysterious lady who runs an even more mysterious farm sucks you into May Bird and the Ever After like a water demon.
This book is middle grade/juvenile fiction but contains some pretty creepy ghosts and monsters. Recommended if you like scary stories like R.L. Stines Goosebumps series, but also if you’re willing to put up with some creepiness in your awesome dimensional-traveling adventure book.
HHC Rating: 4 Stars
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