The Grin in the Dark by J.A. Darke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hamid has a night of babysitting ahead of him, but he doesn’t mind. It’s for his twin cousins and they’re pretty easy. They’ll probably be asleep the whole time anyway and his Aunt and Uncle’s house is cool.
He figures he’ll binge some t.v., eat great snacks, and before he knows it, the night will be over. But as we all know, things frequently don’t go as planned.
The night starts to go sideways on the drive there, when he and his Mom hear over the radio about an escaped convict in their area. That’s creepy, but the prison is pretty far away, so Hamid tries to block it from his mind.
After his Aunt and Uncle leave, he settles into their big comfy couch and starts his t.v. marathon, until the power goes out. Hamid’s night is about to become the worse night of his life…
Y’all, I’m not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to read this book while home alone at night in my dark bedroom with only my book light to guide me. This story terrified me, and I’m not joking.
I was texting my sister while I was reading it, because I was so scared, I didn’t want to leave the bedroom to go to the bathroom, and after a few Adult Beverages, I was reaching a dangerous territory.
This is a YA Horror Novella, so I don’t want to say too much more about what happens in this book, as it comes in at just over 100-pages. I will, however, leave some buzzwords and phrases in case you need further prodding to pick it up:
babysitting, clowns, inclement weather, power outage.
I wouldn’t say the writing was the best I’ve ever read, but it succeeded in doing what it set out to do. Additionally, I loved the illustrations and execution of the scares. P.S. I am ended up hiding this after I finished it, because I could no longer abide it being in my bedroom.