The Enchanted Attic

Shivers #1

by M.D. Spenser

Do Mice Make Music?

Nicole and her sister Casey move into an old house. Nicole thinks the nighttime noises she hears are nothing more than the scurrying of mice. Then she starts to hear eerie music coming through her ceiling. She realizes with a cold, clammy shiver that something far more terrifying than mice must be in the house. . . . And it is up to her to find out what it is, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

Genres: Horror, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction, Ghosts

122 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

M.D. Spenser is a children's author, journalist and music critic. Born in the United States, he lives now in the UK.

"The Enchanted Attic," Book 1 of his popular SHIVERS series of novels for children, was republished as an e-book in August 2011. It is available at amazone.com, Barnes & Noble, Sony and iBookstory. Book 2, "A Ghastly Shade of Green," and Book 3, "Ghost Writer," followed shortly afterwards.


The rest of the 36-book series will be published as ebooks over time.

Also, an internet petition is circulating asking that the entire 36-book series be republished in paperback: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/md...

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

On the surface, the Shivers series looks like just another Goosebumps imitator. But M.D. Spenser has real writing talent, and puts it to use in The Enchanted Attic. Eleven-year-old Nicole is miserable when her family moves to a broken-down mansion in rural Massachusetts. Her father, a journalist, was offered a job at the Boston Globe newspaper, but Nicole wishes he'd turned down the extra money so they could stay in Virginia. The musty old mansion her family lives in now doesn't put out a welcoming vibe; when Nicole tries to sleep in her bedroom the first night, creepy sounds keep her on edge. Is there anything good about her new life in Massachusetts?

Nicole's seven-year-old sister Casey adapts better, as usual, but Nicole becomes interested in the sprawling mansion after stumbling into an old study filled with antique books. Nicole loves reading. Browsing the dusty shelves, she accidentally triggers a secret passage to open, a dark tunnel thick with cobwebs. Though fearful by nature, Nicole wants to explore the passage herself rather than inform her parents. With Casey by her side and a flashlight to pierce the darkness, Nicole follows the route upwards to a rough wooden door. It's locked, and far too heavy for the girls to barge open. This might be the end of their adventure, but then Nicole starts to hear phantom music drifting down from the attic most nights. Her parents never hear it, but the haunting music terrifies Nicole as she lies in bed. What—or who—is playing music behind that locked door? The only way to solve her problem is for Nicole to get the door open and discover the paranormal secret behind this house, a tragedy dating back more than a century. Can Nicole handle the sad, frightening truth?

The Enchanted Attic enjoys a brisk start. Only a few pages in, Nicole is uncovering secrets in the mansion's old study. The reason I'm only rating it one and a half stars is that the story logic doesn't hold up as the plot climaxes and then coasts to a conclusion. This isn't a bad juvenile horror book, though; not as richly layered as most in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps franchise, but decent reading for kids who want a good scare and don't mind plot holes. I would read the Shivers series again.

[Shadyside Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book just a bit boring, which could be the lack of characters and dialogue. It did have a rather dark and eerie tone which made it a little spooky but not entertaining unfortunately.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://twitter.com/Spongey445/status...

A fair Good.

[Deo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the start of a series called Shivers, kind of like a spinoff of R.L Stines Goosebumps series. This is the first one I have read and it was better than I thought it was going to be. Basically its about this girl Nicole who moves into a house in Boston with her family after her father accepts a job with the Boston Globe. Nicole hears things in the attic at night, almost like mice scratching around and she swears she can hear voices too. One day while in the study she finds a secret tunnel by pulling on one of the books on the shelf. The tunnel is too dark and it gives Nicole the creeps so she enlists the help of her younger sister, Casey. The girls explore it all and end up coming across a trunk filled with dolls. By this point Nicole has started to hear music coming from the attic, and when she returns the next time all the dolls are in different positions and one even has a different expression on the face. After matching names and professions found in a journal it is discovered that all the dolls were imbued with the spirits of the old house owners family so he would never be alone.Most of his closest family had died very young right before big days in their lives... almost like a family curse. The dolls only come to life in the dark, so Nicole and Casey rip the curtains down in the attic to let light in always. My unanswered questions is why did the old owner lock the dolls in the trunk behind the sealed door in the first place?

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

The pilot book for the Shivers series happens to be one of the weakest in the series. M.D. Spenser’s writing quality was definitely better here than it was anywhere else in this series, and it’s apparent he just stopped giving much-a-fuck after a certain point in time. There’s some dark backstory/lore to the story I quite liked and a bizarrely somber tone to the whole book that I wasn’t expecting. The ending is decent and there’s a certain mechanic near the end I found interesting, but that’s where my positives end. For being the first book of the series, it is utterly boring. I’m not even kidding when I say a whole fourth of this book was complete padding, with the sisters looking around to find a key to the attic, then finding it, then needing another key, then venturing to the shed, then breaking into a desk, and—you see the issue? That’s a whole fourth of this book that is seldom used to pad out this story, and I’d argue about 70 pages of this shit was useless filler either scattered about randomly. The main character keeps going on and on about how much they dislike their father’s decision to uproot and move, and it’s like—SHUT UP! We get it. Not to mention the main is just a mean-spirited jerk half the time that was hard to like. There’s a lot of roughy grammatical errors, some typos, and instances of bad writing. There’s a two-sentence paragraph in the second-to-last chapter that literally felt like the sentences were in reverse order. Like bro, wtf. The book takes way too long to get to the point (The Enchanted Attic) and drags on far longer than necessary, there’s a dumbass fakeout death scare near the end that did absolutely nothing but drag out the story another five pages (kill me, please), and there’s a random go-go-gadget bullshit move in the final ten pages involving the dolls depicted on the cover (because yes, they’re in here) potentially being less doll sized. Straight fucking nonsense but whatever. I could keep going, but you get the gist. Overall, 3.5/10. Nice mood and some decent lore, but nothing else really. Really bad start for the series. The Weeping Angel Infested Attic.

[A B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really not sure where or how I learned of this book. It's possible I read about it on a forum in which members were reminiscing about childhood books - or covers - that scared them.

The cover is indeed rather creepy, even for the grade school horror genre, in this unapologetic Goosebumps knockoff. Perhaps it's the creepy cover juxtapositioned with a pretty word like "enchanted".

However, the cover and the title page with its "READ ONLY IF YOU WANT TO HAVE NIGHTMARES" are the only good things about this story.

A girl and her annoying little sister move reluctantly to an old fixer-upper house. They find some hidden rooms and staircases, but the details are more about them trying to find tools to break the locks and explore without their parents' knowledge. All of the spooky stuff is just the girl hearing noises only to realize it's her little sister.

In the last 20 pages, the author finally realizes there should be a plot and puts together a really dark element that seems too much for such a young audience seriously, innocent peoples' souls trapped in dolls and turned homicidal?? There isn't much resolution and the ending is abrupt.

I spent waaaay too much time on this review.

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw my local thrift store had the first 12 books in this series for 99 cents each so o had to buy them all.

It's clearly a knock off of Goosebumps. Shivers? Really?

The book is pretty well written, at times it felt more mature than what I was expecting.

I'm gonna be honest though, it took almost half the book for them to even find the attic and the doll from the cover doesn't show up until way late in the book (page 85ish of 120). Even then nothing really creepy happens until the last 10 or so pages and it just wraps up quickly in a very neat bow.

If I was a kid and read this, I probably wouldn't have continued with the series. The writing is good but it was too slow to get to the stuff like the title/cover/back described.

[Andrew Sammut · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this book quite a while ago. it is about dolls that come alive in the attic and the main character Casey helps to open the curtains as they only come alive in the dark and moved about or changed facial expressions !!! the spirits in the dolls were the old housekeepers family :)) very creepy and despite not being an original idea it was still quite interesting.

31/12/2022, I am trying to sell my shivers collection because I outgrew these silly reads lol

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. This is about a girl that moves into this house and every night she hears singing. So then she finds out that there are enchanted dolls in the attic and only light will stop them.

I read this book in 5th grade and I found it very intresting, especially when she found the old flag in the attic.

[KWinks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this one on the YA shelf at work. I think the cover drew me in. Read it in an hour- and it's a pretty good read! I'd hand this one to fans of Mary Downing Hahn or Goosebumps. The writing is tight and the story moves pretty quick. Nicole is a bit of bully to her little sister, but grows by the end.

[Shan( Shans_Shelves) 💜 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brought back that good sweet nostalgia. I remember reading this as a kid and it was so scary. Won’t lie- it freaked me out a bit now, but I liked it.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/10

Bland, repetitive and boring, I really don’t recommend this one.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars although not much happened in the first 3/4 of the book I thought it was pretty creepy and had a nice atmosphere to it. The passageway and the attic and house were creepy and I liked the sisters. But when they finally entered the attic and got into the trunk it was VERY underwhelming. And it was literally 2 pages. Then the book was over. I thought I was really going to like it but as the book kept getting towards the end I knew the ending would be rushed. Wish the attic was entered sooner and was creepier and had more happen. And the explanation for the dolls was pretty weak and just unbelievable even for a kids book. I wish it was just haunted dolls. Overall it was good. Could’ve been better but it is what it is.

[Jairo_rocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD

Ok,so This is the First Entry in the classic ''Shivers'' series.
Its a pretty good introduction, while not being the scariest, still being a great book
fun for all ages. The story develops quite well, and has a great atmosphere.
I liked the moth coming out the drawer, was a pretty creepy part and also the painting too.
The part i didnt like about the book was that at the end it felt like the author really wanted to go the
way that the little sister died, but did'nt. the execution of that scene felt kinda lazy, but i still enjoyed the book, and is a strong first book for the series.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in a Shivers anthology when I was about 7 or 8, on holiday in Wales. Back then I didn’t even know what a cello was, and this still scared the bejesus out of me. Honestly, that tunnel and those dolls with their old outfits still stick with me now, not least because I kept this book squirrelled away on my bookshelf.

[Jess reads more · Rating 3 out of 5]

The new house, the haunted passageway into the attic, the chattering voices at night...

I enjoyed this take on a haunted house story and found the characters engaging and easy to connect with. This creepy story is great for young adults and connects the creepy doll trope to fear of death.

Great story!

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read this book that is a young adult read as two sisters find more than they expected in an old house they live in.

[Jed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it
❤❤❤

[AlveraA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loveeee this book..might read the entire series

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is genuinely quite creepy. I liked the idea of the attic and the dolls. Who doesn't love a secret hidden room in an old house?

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but it's not the greatest.
Recommend reading, though

[Cal H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept. I just wish it had been a bit more fleshed out and didn’t take so long to get to the action. It cold have been a lot creepier by having more interactions with the dolls.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it as much as I did as a kid. Of course as an adult, I do wish this could have been a longer, more detailed novel.

[Dan C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicole's a bit dim, jeez. I liked the relationship between the sisters. Wish it was a little scarier. Plot was a little thin. 3/5

[Ishmal Ahtsham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book about two kids who discover something odd going on in the attic. A very enjoyable book! Simply wonderful!

[Saakshi Roy]

It didn't let me sleep at night... it was so DAMN good... i liked Nicole...and Casey. MD Spenser's great!

[Marina Kelawon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first I read from the Shivers series and I absolutely loved it!

[Khushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very scary book! I loved it!

[Braillance De Tes Yeux]

great