Year of New Authors
Jessica and Ryan are two best friends and amateur magicians. Fascinated by the many false bottomed boxes, tricks cards and fart putty pots of the Horrorland magic shop, the pair unwittingly buy a two headed coin that can perform a far greater trick than cheating at bets. A simple coin toss to outwit a bully lands the pair in another place, in another time, where they fall head first into being suspects of regicide.
In another attempt to recapture the childhood of reading I passed over to watch the dirty stuff on late night chanel 4 past my bedtime, I have now finally read the infamous and prolific children's horror writer R.L Stine. And it was good. Utterly disposable, yes, but enjoyably consumed as I tried to put off my more miserable to-reads.
It had some atmosphere, some gruesome scenes and two quite likeable leads, but it also suffers the usual issues with pulp for kiddies. The bully is a fat lumbering moron after lunch money, with a personality as nuanced as a salt flat; several cliff hangers are immediately resolved in the first sentence of the next chapter, and there were far too many unnecessary '!'s for my liking.
It's also very mean spirited, as with the exception of Jessica's father and a shopkeeper, every adult the pair encounter are mean, bloody thirsty, authoritarian or unnervingly insane, and almost no one listens to reason. If nothing else, it perfectly sums up a child's reaction to hearing the exasperated 'Because I said so!', encapsulating all the confusion and lack of context that makes adults appear mean or unjust for the sake of gleeful cruelty.
Will I be reading more? I think sadly that ship has sailed, and I'm far too old to be depriving a ten year old from more of these macabre romps by using up a library reservation. However, I still fully reccomend this nasty tale to adults, because even though I lack the rosy tinted lenses of your likely nostalgia, it's still simple fun.