Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of the Gravemother

One of the wonderful things about the horror genre is that it appeals to all ages. As a book reviewer, I’ve read a handful of novels labeled Young Adult and/or Teen and was generally impressed with the writing. Rotters (2011) by Daniel Kraus, for example, is a most memorable and literally groundbreaking tale that features an estranged father and teenaged son forging a warped connection and tolerance for one another via grave robbing. Therefore, when offered the opportunity to review what’s referred to as “Middle Grade fiction,” my curiosity was piqued. The category is geared to kids between the ages of eight and twelve, after which they then may gravitate toward the Young Adult label which caters to the twelve to eighteen-years-old crowd. The main differences between the categories are that Middle Grade fiction is devoid of profanity, sexual activity, and extreme violence. With that in mind, I settled into Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of the Gravemother.

Using the framework of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? television series, author Rin Chupeco begins the narrative with a prologue: The new kid in town is navigating his way and reflecting on the standards of behavior: “Middle schools are ecosystems. Everyone has a role, and everyone knows the rules.” He is aware of the social hierarchy and the potential for discord. “And for New Kid, there’s always the Rival. The Rival is that kid who’s risen to the top and doesn’t like any threats to the order of things. Usually they come across as chill, but an unexpected wrinkle (like the sudden appearance of a New Kid) throws them into a panic.”

After a bit of competitive posturing, there’s an opportunity for the two boys who exemplify the archetypes to find common ground and potentially create a spiritual bond. Both are fans of ghost stories and supernatural phenomena, and it just so happens that there’s a club formed by fellow students that engages in telling made up spooky tales around a campfire. Against the wishes of the Rival, the New Kid is given the chance to become a member…if he can get a unanimous vote that his story is worthy.

The bulk of the novel consists of the yarn he spins. Which unsurprisingly, has parallels to what the storyteller is experiencing; someone uprooted who is trying to fit into a different environment. He begins with the expected opening from the TV series: “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society,” (which is a homage to Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone) and proceeds to tell “The Tale of the Gravemother.” The story’s protagonist and his dad and eight-year-old sister have moved from New York City to a small town to inspect the house the father has inherited. The domicile is said to be haunted by a figure the locals refer to as The Gravemother. The apparition quickly becomes a horrific feature in the protagonist’s life. Repeatedly inflicting her frightening appearance on him. She also regularly haunts his hostile high school rival whose parents run the town mortuary. The boy’s mother executes makeup and embalming duties. But even living upstairs in a mortuary and being accustomed to being around the dead does not prepare him for close encounters with a distressed wraith who is missing her lower jaw and makes clacking noises. The two classmates inevitably join forces in what is a hopeful analogy on the part of the storyteller. And that is dealt with in the epilogue.

It is a shrewd and savvy move for Amulet Books–An Imprint of ABRAMS–to publish this, the first of a series of books based on the extremely popular television series and its subsequent reboot. Motivating kids to read is made simpler when there’s a reference to what’s familiar. Rin Chupeco did a nice job evoking the show and inadvertently taught me, a not-so-young adult, a new word: pareidolia. For others who are unfamiliar with it, it means seeing familiar patterns/objects in otherwise not related random patterns/objects. Reading Middle Grade fiction proved quite educational.