The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

by Claire Legrand

Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it’s Victoria—even if it means getting a little messy. (description from Amazon.com)

Did you love Coraline? Are you a Lemony Snicket fan? If so, this is a GREAT book for you...

Everything in Victoria's town has gone just a little bit twisty. Kids are disappearing, adults are ignoring things, and no one is willing to talk to Victoria about it. She, however, is the last person to give up when she knows she is right...and she knows that something is wrong and the Cavendish Home has something to do with it. 

Once Victoria starts asking questions, though, she attracts the wrong kind of attention, and once she's been taken to the Cavendish Home, there may be no escaping.

Suspenseful and creepy.

Full disclosure: Borrowed from my Library

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave

by Candace Fleming

 

Set in White Cemetery, an actual graveyard outside Chicago, each story takes place during a different time period from the 1860's to the present, and ends with the narrator's death. Some teens die heroically, others ironically, but all due to supernatural causes. Readers will meet walking corpses and witness demonic posession, all against the backdrop of Chicago's rich history—the Great Depression, the World's Fair, Al Capone and his fellow gangsters. (description from Amazon.com)

 

This book was interesting. I liked how it was one boy's story that interwove all the tales of the other teens' deaths.  Some of the stories were far more interesting than others, but they were all fun and easy to read.  I loved how each was supernatural and creepy, but not enough to induce nightmares. A simple enough read that I would give to someone who has outgrown Goosebumps but doesn't really want full-on HORROR yet.

 

Full disclosure: Borrowed through interlibrary loan