Title: Dead Boys
Author: Royce Buckingham
Pages: 208 pages
Kindle: $10.99(this might be the most I have spent on a book for my iPad yet)
Cybil Book #36
Synopsis(from author website): When twelve year old Teddy Mathews moves to a strange desert town in the middle of nowhere, he finds himself living among rattlesnakes, scorpions, black widow spiders, and downstream from the local nuclear plant.
As the newcomer, he also has no friends. Even worse, the first three boys he meets mysteriously disappear. Teddy begins to investigate. To his horror, he discovers that they’ve all been missing for decades—he’s been hanging out with dead boys!
Add a mutant kid-eating tree next door, and Teddy’s got an incredible mystery on his hands loaded with ghosts, desert dangers, and a sinister dark world lurking just beneath the deceptively sunny surface of my strange childhood hometown of Richland, Washington.
My Thoughts
I made the plunge to buy this book on my iPad because I have heard great things about this novel. I also know that his other books are big hits in my school. So….I hit the buy button and 11 bucks later I took the plunge to this creepy world of Teddy.
The premise of a tree that needs to suck the life of kids in order to survive sounds a little cheesy. But, and I mean BUT, this storyline is anything but cheesy. Teddy finds himself immersed in a world of dead kids and fighting to survive.
As I read this book I kept trying to figure out why Teddy was doing the things he was doing. When it all comes together I instantly thought, “Brilliant! This author is brilliant!”
The story reads fast, sucks you in completely and is not going to let you go until you finish the last page. I had moments where I was honestly scared. Serious, no joke I was so captivated into the world of Teddy that I believe my heart rate increased a couple times. There are also some gross scenes that I loved(spider scene so gross…I will never view corn the same way again).
The storyline is not overly complex which is perfect for middle grade. There are some crazy scenes, plenty to grab the interest of any reader(even reluctant), and something for everyone.
There were a few things that bothered me, but that is just because I am old and picky. The things that bothered me are not things that I think would bother a middle grade reader. I will be recommending this book to my school librarian to purchase for our school catalogue. Go ahead and read this to have a good scare and fun, quick read that will hold on tight and not let go.
Leave a Reply