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Another suspenseful book in the series!
My dear bookish friends,
Jennifer Killick is back with book five (yes, already so far into the series!) of the Dread Wood series and it’s another great addition that kept me glued to my seat! Club Loser is back together, just about recovered from the latest horrors they barely survived, and now they are really ready for some fun and relaxation! Birthday fun, to be precise, as the gang wants to celebrate Colette’s 13th birthday. What could go wrong? Well, as they should know by now, a whole lot…
I loved so much about this! A short overview:
+ Club Loser is friendship goals!!!
+ A new exciting setting
+ Another new horror scenario
+ A BIG revelation
These are just some points I really loved, so please keep on reading to find out more!
About the Book
The brand new must-read middle-grade novel from the author of super-spooky Crater Lake. Perfect for 9+ fans of R.L.Stine’s Goosebumps.
It’s Colette’s birthday and the friends are spending an evening at Neon Perch – an epic entertainment spot where they can eat pizza, play mini golf and – best of all – take part in Project Z – an epic new escape room experience. It’s going to be the best night ever!
Or is it . . . ?
Somehow, the escape room somehow seems to know each player’s greatest fears. And worst of all, there are creatures locked up with them. Creatures from their darkest nightmares . . . giant, poisonous RATS!
My Review
I loved seeing Club Loser back together!! The Dread Wood series is actually one of the few book series I’m excited about at the moment, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one! It’s Colette’s 13th birthday, and the gang is dropped off by her mum and Mr C at the Neon Perch for a day of birthday fun and festivities: go-karts, pizza, mini golf, karaoke, and the brand new escape room. How cool is that? And after everything they’ve been through, the gang really deserves a break. With the Latchitts safely stuck behind bars, nothing can go wrong. Surely it can’t, right? Right?!!
Well, I have to say I find the kids’ ability to adapt to normal life again after everything they’ve been through really admirable – no matter how often they have to go through the Latchitt’s new horrific attacks they come out braver and stronger the other end. This is book five in the series, so they really have been through a LOT, but their friendship just got stronger and they came out more resilient and more mature after every new catastrophy. I still couldn’t help wondering in what world the parents would let their kids out into yet ANOTHER unforeseeable situation like this without at least sticking around, but then I had to remind myself that this is fiction and the story wouldn’t work otherwise, and that I have to stop overthinking everything (lol).
The Neon Perch is another new and very exciting setting, and I am really in awe of Jennifer Killick’s ability to come up with these new places and scenarios in every single book, so the settings never get boring! A huge factory-type place with different food courts, mini golf, karaoke, AND a brand new escape room sounds like the perfect place to spend a birthday, but coincidentally also like the perfect place for a couple of evil scientists to play out their next dark plan!
The moment the kids went downstairs to the escape room the atmosphere got darker, and when the zombies were after them I got actual goosebumps. Scary!! But that was only the beginning. The rat attack is a new addition to the creepy awfulness the Latchitts have come up with. The zombies felt so real that I didn’t even expect anything else (even though ‘Rat Attack’ is pretty clearly visible on the cover, lol) to come, but this way (together with the horrible escape room), the gang was actually up against three enemies in one book!
Once again, Angelo, Gus, Hallie, Naira and Colette have proven they are great friends with an amazingly strong bond. I loved that they, too, had their ups and downs over time, there wasn’t only sunshine and rainbows from the start. They had to learn to trust each other, to grow together, to be able to depend on one another, no matter what. Good friendships like that are one of my most favourite tropes in books, and I just really loved their dynamics. Going through all these hardships together surely made their bond all the more strong, but I also loved that we got a glimpse at actual fun and carefree times between the friends towards the end of the book. Very often in books I have difficulty keeping characters apart if there are too many of them, but they all have such distinct traits and qualities that this was not a problem here. I also love that their traits are depicted so nicely, we learn more about the friends, even some hidden secrets!
I lost count of how many times I said that this is book five in the Dread Wood series here lol. Normally, I often get bored if there are more than three books in a series. Yet, I can’t wait for the next part, and have been feeling like this ever since I discovered book one in a TheWriteReads blogtour a long time ago (and I’m so glad that I did)! However, as much as I want to read more about Angelo, Gus, Colette and co, I do still find myself wondering how the series will finally end eventually, and to see how the baddies will be beat once and for all (I’m really hoping they will be!).
Jennifer Killick does a great job at thinking of little details that need to be remembered, things that have to be mentioned in order to make sense, which I love. I notice these things if they are left out and the book feels lacking for me. However, there were still a few tiny things in this one that left some questions open for me. Of course, I don’t want to spoiler anything, so please don’t read the next paragraph if you still want to go into the book without spoilers! But for those of you who have read the book and might want to help answer some questions I still have, or if you don’t mind spoilers, then please read on!
SPOILER WARNING
One of the things I kept wondering was whether or not Clonette aka Corinne was something that was planned from the start, or whether she was a late addition to the storyline. It shouldn’t matter really, you’d think, but it did feel a little sudden and surprising. Where was she when the Latchitts were in jail? Who was taking care of her? When did they ‘create’ her? Between their jail time and preparing the next evil plan, where was time for that?
It was explained that the Latchitts were in the control room and kept observing the gang on all the security cameras. Why didn’t they realise the gang was coming for them? You’d think one of the three would at least go outside and have a look, or at the very least guard the door? Once inside, I was a bit surprised at how easily they kept especially Mrs Latchitt under control in her seat, when she was described as incredibly strong and basically indestructable before.
How did the Latchitts get all the people out of that huge place, and why were no authorities alarmed by that? Is really the entire police force under their influence?
When Colette was bitten by the rat first, she was out almost instantly. She fainted after mere seconds, but when Angelo was bitten he seemed to run and run on for ages until he got to the ice rink, which felt a bit weird. Why was he seemingly more immune to their venom? And why were the rats invisible when the gang watched the first challenge on the screen?
I know that this is a children’s book and they aren’t always super in-depth, but I still had these questions in my mind while reading. They do not make the book a bad book (as you can see from my rating!), on the contrary: they show that I wanted to know even more!
SPOILER ENDING
The section above shows how high my expectations are for this author, because I absolutely love her books and she is definitely on my auto-buy list forever! If you feel like you can answer any of my questions above, please message me or leave a comment!
So, how do I wrap this up? I love these unique and highly likeable characters, I want to see them defeat the evil Latchitts once and for all, and I cannot wait to see what the next book has in store for them! This is already such a long review, and I still don’t even want to wrap it up – that shows how much I love this entire series!
Because the questions I still have left I feel like I do have to take off one star when I rate this book, even though my love for this series knows no bounds! So that means 4 stars from me, and I can’t wait for the next book in the Dread Wood series!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Have YOU read this book? What did you think? If you haven’t started the series yet I strongly urge you to do so, I’m sure you won’t regret it!
Thank you all so much for reading!
xoxo
