Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for
The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at
strangelibrary.com. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog he tagged ten "books that cast forests in their proper light: dangerous, dark, and deep," including:
Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero
In the remote town of Blyton Hills, a group of preteen sleuths solve crimes involving pirates and sheep smugglers—until an investigation into a lake monster traps them in a haunted mansion out of a horror movie and puts them face-to-face with the Lovecraftian fishpeople of the Zoinx River Valley. Thirteen years later, the snarkier, more genre-savvy, still traumatized members of the Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club reunite to solve the case that haunts their every waking (and sleeping) moment, battling their way through the creepy forests, abandoned mines, and through the haunted DeBoën Manor to stop the cosmic horror at the center of Sleepy Lake. Cantero’s smart enough to know we’ve already seen snarky heroes fighting their way through cosmic horror, and uses the opportunity to explore the deeper themes of closure, trauma, and learning to move on from the past.
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another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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