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Jason Strange
23 Crow's Perch
Henry is a little creeped out by his new apartment. For one thing, the previous tenants died a few weeks before he moved in. For another, there's a gas leak somewhere in the building and the smell is starting to seep into his clothes. Just when Henry thinks things couldn't get much worse, one of the former tenants pays him a midnight visit.
72 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 15, 2019
Stone Arch's juvenile horror novels may be hit-or-miss, but there's no faulting their atmosphere. Like the imprint's Spine Shivers series, the Jason Strange books exude a creepiness that will keep you on edge. Henry isn't happy about moving to the isolated town of Ravens Pass. He used to live in a spacious, comfortable house, but when his father lost his job, his mother couldn't be choosy about what employment she accepted to keep the family afloat. She and Henry are temporarily moving into a small apartment until Henry's father finishes at his old job and can join them. Their financial situation should stabilize, but for now they have to survive at the Crow's Perch apartment building. If only subpar accommodations were their worst problem...
The filthy apartment gives off a stench that pervades every room. Henry dutifully helps his mother clean the place, restoring a modicum of respectability, and he's weary by the time she leaves to meet her new boss for dinner. Henry looks forward to a relaxing evening, but is chilled to the bone by an encounter with a skeletal stranger in the kitchen. The emaciated woman vanishes before Henry's mother sees her, leaving him to wonder if she was a symptom of his stress and mental fatigue. He tries to put the incident out of mind and watch television in the threadbare living room, but there Henry is shaken by a second encounter, with a spectral teen boy whose face and body are visibly rotting. There's no denying it: something sinister is in the offing at Crow's Perch.
Ravens Pass Middle School seems normal, even if the streets are nearly empty on the walk there. When Henry registers for classes, the secretary shows surprise that he lives at 23 Crow's Perch. Before joining his first class, Henry sneaks into the school library to research the apartment, and finds a major red flag: a news story about a double murder at his home address. The killer, a local businessman, hired a woman from out of state, paid for hers and her son's housing at 23 Crow's Perch, and then rigged the apartment's natural gas pipes so the pair died of asphyxiation. The story is all too familiar: are Henry and his mother being set up as the businessman's next victims? Henry races to save his mother, but isn't prepared for the shock awaiting him at the apartment. In Ravens Pass, death is only the beginning of horror.
23 Crow's Perch is written in pithy paragraphs that go directly to the heart of the story, but the eerie ambience is mostly due to Nelson Evergreen's interior illustrations. As with his cover art for the Spine Shivers series, Evergreen evokes a visceral fear response with his drawings. I won't quite put him in the same class as Stephen Gammell, original illustrator of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy, but he isn't far off. I'm not certain 23 Crow's Perch makes perfect sense, but the ending is potent and I'll rate the book two and a half stars. As a series, Jason Strange has all kinds of potential.
The filthy apartment gives off a stench that pervades every room. Henry dutifully helps his mother clean the place, restoring a modicum of respectability, and he's weary by the time she leaves to meet her new boss for dinner. Henry looks forward to a relaxing evening, but is chilled to the bone by an encounter with a skeletal stranger in the kitchen. The emaciated woman vanishes before Henry's mother sees her, leaving him to wonder if she was a symptom of his stress and mental fatigue. He tries to put the incident out of mind and watch television in the threadbare living room, but there Henry is shaken by a second encounter, with a spectral teen boy whose face and body are visibly rotting. There's no denying it: something sinister is in the offing at Crow's Perch.
Ravens Pass Middle School seems normal, even if the streets are nearly empty on the walk there. When Henry registers for classes, the secretary shows surprise that he lives at 23 Crow's Perch. Before joining his first class, Henry sneaks into the school library to research the apartment, and finds a major red flag: a news story about a double murder at his home address. The killer, a local businessman, hired a woman from out of state, paid for hers and her son's housing at 23 Crow's Perch, and then rigged the apartment's natural gas pipes so the pair died of asphyxiation. The story is all too familiar: are Henry and his mother being set up as the businessman's next victims? Henry races to save his mother, but isn't prepared for the shock awaiting him at the apartment. In Ravens Pass, death is only the beginning of horror.
23 Crow's Perch is written in pithy paragraphs that go directly to the heart of the story, but the eerie ambience is mostly due to Nelson Evergreen's interior illustrations. As with his cover art for the Spine Shivers series, Evergreen evokes a visceral fear response with his drawings. I won't quite put him in the same class as Stephen Gammell, original illustrator of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy, but he isn't far off. I'm not certain 23 Crow's Perch makes perfect sense, but the ending is potent and I'll rate the book two and a half stars. As a series, Jason Strange has all kinds of potential.
January 4, 2025
A decently well-written and creepy book, but the content may be a little more mature than its intended audience. I remember being very upset the first time I read this at seven or eight. Not really scared so much as just disturbed— the book’s unsettling atmosphere is pervasive and stuck with me long after I finished the book. I’m sure it would lose most of its impact if I read it again today as a teenager, but it left a big impression on me as a little kid who usually loved (age-appropriate) horror content. The illustrations are incredibly detailed and contribute a lot to the overall scare factor— very reminiscent of Stephen Gammell’s work in “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” All in all, I would say it’s a worthy contribution to the genre of “horror for kids,” but it might be worth reviewing on your own before handing it off to your kids if they are on the younger side or sensitive to disturbing imagery.
December 29, 2018
A small town with some weird stuff happening there. Interesting storyline, scary but not too scary. Designed to ignite young readers' imaginations and minds. Great questions and prompts at the end of the book.
November 5, 2019
This story reads more like a mystery than a thriller but it has a very surprising ending.
June 24, 2021
Was defienetly interesting
January 23, 2022
amazing
April 30, 2024
Great creepy short story. There’s a twist that I did not see coming. If you’re looking for a ghost story to read in an hour this is definitively a good one to read.
May 23, 2013
I think this series has potential, but the main character is 14 and the reading level is way younger. I am confused on who the target audience is.
April 21, 2016
This book will put you on the edge of your sit. I think that Jason Strange is a good author of the creepy books, that make you feel the story.
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October 19, 2016good book 100 stars
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January 26, 2018GOOD
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews