Young Adult Spotlight: "Creepers" by Joanne Dahme

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Creepers
Joanne Dahme
232 pp. Running Press Kids. $15.95

Reviewed by Lindsay Stotts

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Breaking in the inaugural edition of Young Adult Spotlight, a new feature here at Blood of the Muse, is the novel “Creepers” by Joanne Dahme. This is Dahme’s first plunge into young adult fiction, and she focuses on a genre that is a favorite of kids everywhere: a good old-fashioned ghost story. So does “Creepers” send chilly tendrils up your spine, or does this vine need to be cut back? Answers await!

The novel, which is set in a small town, begins with thirteen year old Courtney and her parents moving into an old house that sits on the edge of a graveyard. Courtney quickly befriends her new neighbors: a young girl and her father, who also happens to be the caretaker and tour guide for the cemetery (…and if you look out the left side of the tram, you’ll see a headstone). Although the girl and her father are very friendly and nice, Courtney and her parents just cant shake the feeling that something is not quite right with them (well, duh, he’s a tour guide for a graveyard. Hello, creepy!). This uneasy feeling is further compounded by the thick, overgrown ivy that blankets her new house and the surrounding grounds. It’s almost as if the ivy is alive and watching Courtney’s every move.

Soon the caretaker’s daughter, Margaret, starts confiding in Courtney about the deep secrets that her family bears. Margaret reveals that she and her father are on a centuries old quest to unite their ancestor Christian with his daughter Prudence. But in order to do this they must find their bodies first (what do you mean, you misplaced the bodies?). With the help of the ivy, a witch, some mischievous cats and Christian’s mysterious diary, Courtney and her family try to help Margaret and her dad solve the mystery that surrounds their family.

The pacing of the book starts off very slow. The descriptive passages early on focus on the ivy with an almost obsessive fixation, and are detrimental to the flow of the story. Although there is significance to the ivy in the novel, I felt bludgeoned relentlessly with it in the beginning. Even when I finally overlooked this obsessive belaboring by Dahme, I found the rest of the story quite slow. There was unfortunately little progression with the characters or the plot, and the future prospects appeared dim. I had a strong desire to abandon the book since the entertainment value just wasn’t there, but I forced myself to continue to pick it up and read it.

Surprisingly, I was happy I stuck with it. The plot finally hits a turning point about halfway through the book and actually becomes quite interesting as Dahme finally manages to turn “Creepers” into a full-fledged ghost story, complete with witches, thunderstorms and embodied ghosts. (She even threw in a curse for good measure for those fans who are curse-obsessed. Yeah, I see you over there in the corner.) After this pleasant turning point, the story was much more enjoyable, driving me on to find out how Dahme would resolve everything.

Stylistically, the writing is simple and straightforward with nothing overly complicated or challenging that would bog down young readers. Though pained in the first half of the book, Dahme’s prose flows effortlessly (after the halfway point). She gives enough detail to start the reader’s imagination, but not so much detail that a young person’s mind can’t run free. “Creepers” appeals to the kid in all of us who wishes to be in Courtney’s shoes as she finds herself in the midst of a big mystery while making a new best friend in a strange town. In the end, “Creepers” leaves the reader with the message that everyone just wants to fit in.

Last Word:
While the target audience for “Creepers” is stated as teens, I’d recommend it for readers between the ages of ten and thirteen. The book will likely bore older teens and more advanced young readers. Although incredibly slow in the beginning, “Creepers” does eventually pick up the pace, ultimately saving itself with a satisfying final act. Overall, Dahme provides a decent mystery read in her first young adult foray, one that did not leave me wishing for those hours of my life back.

Final Score: 69 our of 100