The nightmarys

Review by Booklist Review

Timothy doesn't really know what to make of Abigail, the new girl in his seventh-grade class. After she is humiliated before her classmates, bad things start happening. Timothy's best friend sees the clawed monster from his favorite video game at the bottom of a pool. Their teacher begins to get paranoid about the creepy specimen jars surrounding his classroom. But it's not Abigail's fault; in fact, she is seeing visions of the Nightmarys two sinister little girls who beckon her to come play with them. It's a marvelously disorienting setup, and Poblocki has a knack for cornering his characters in the most unlikely of vulnerable places: a laundry room, a changing room, a hospital bed. As the plot begins to hammer sense into the horrific happenings it all has to do with a mystical jawbone, an insane professor, and a demon called the Daughter of Chaos the scares get bigger, though often less impactful. More than anything, this is a mystery, complete with clues and secret codes, and Poblocki's deft handling of the multiple threads makes this a devilish delight.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Seventh-grade best friends Timothy and Stuart are both upset when Timothy accidentally volunteers to be a project partner in class with a surly new girl named Abigail. But although Timothy and Abigail clash, after viewing a dire-looking painting called The Edge of Doom on a field trip they are forced to bond when strange and dangerous things start happening to them, including visits from two ghostly girls called the Nightmarys. It is up to them to solve a mystery related to Abigail's family, which involves an ancient cursed bone and a 60-year-old murder, before events turn deadly. Plot twists keep the pacing taut, conspiring to make readers believe that Timothy and Abigail have beaten the latest threat, only to put them in greater danger. Poblocki (The Stone Child) offers plenty of grisly, cinematically creepy imagery for readers who like a good scare, and the tightly wound narrative and ongoing tension between Timothy and Abigail will keep readers holding their breath until even after what they think is the climax. Ages 9-12. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-When seventh-grader Timothy is paired with the new girl, Abigail, for a school project, he doesn't expect to find himself fighting against nightmares: his friend's, his teacher's, and his own. Suddenly, people who make Abigail angry are being haunted by their worst fears. But if she is causing the situation, why is she being haunted, too? And how can she make it stop? Timothy and Abigail discover that what is happening to them is somehow tied to a 60-year-old mystery of a missing girl, but the real cause of the terror taking over their town might be even older. Secrets-Abigail's, Timothy's, and even Abigail's grandmother's-must be revealed before the pair can defeat an ancient curse and put the Nightmarys to rest. Full of tense moments and atmospheric settings, this book will keep readers turning pages as quickly as they can. Poblocki keeps the suspense high as he slowly reveals the truth about who or what is in control. While the plot twists may be somewhat confusing, the strong characters and deliciously frightening action will keep fans of scary stories engaged to the end.-Karen E. Brooks-Reese, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Horn Book Review

Seventh-graders Timothy and Abigail discover that a curse cast through human sacrifice is the cause of their waking nightmares. With the help of Abigail's grandmother, the kids confront both human and supernatural evil. The story suffers from inconsistent logic but is full of chilling horror-movie-style scares. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Read this work in the light of day, or Timothy July's nightmares just might become your own. A series of seemingly random acts of creepiness opens the talebloody water rushing from a washing machine, visions of the dead, a monster in a swimming pool, an evil lunatic with a magic jawbone, evil ghost girls haunting Abigail and nightmares haunting Timothy. And who is that man in a gray overcoat who seems present at every evil occurrence? Surely there's a connection among the events, and readers who hang in there as Timothy and his classmate Abigail figure out the mysterious proceedings will be rewarded with an exciting tale of mystery and horror. As in Poblocki's first novel, The Stone Child (2009), the young sleuths uncover clues leading them to climactic scenes involving giant creatures, hideous evil and a blending of fantasy and reality. A good match with Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid (2010), another nonstop action tale with a boy and a girl joining hands to face the forces of chaos. (Horror. 9-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Timothy July first noticed the jars lining the top shelf along the side of room 117 at the beginning of the school year, but by mid-April he'd still not looked closer. The specimens inside the jars had been pickled decades earlier in an opaque and yellowish liquid by some forgotten alumnus of Paul Revere Middle School. Over the years, most of the labels had faded or peeled away from the glass, and so the true identity of the strange multilegged worms, the twisted slimy bodies of mammalian fetuses, and the hollow exoskeletons of beetles would be left to the imaginations of those students who bothered to crane their necks and peer into the dusty heights of the classroom's shadowy wall. Until today, Timothy had taken no interest in them. No one had, not even Mr. Crane, Timothy's seventh-grade history teacher, over whose classroom the specimens watched silently and who was presently providing instruction for the next day's field trip. "You'll work in pairs," said the teacher evenly, pacing in front of the long green chalkboard. "Together, you will choose a single artifact to study. I want ten pages from the two of you, illustrated in the manner of your choice--collage, drawings, charts, graphs, whatever--describing where your artifact is from, how it compares to the art of the era, and how . . ." Timothy was not paying attention. Something in one of the jars was staring at him with a glassy black eye. Stuart Chen leaned across the aisle and nudged him. Timothy jumped. "This is so lame," Stuart whispered. "I thought field trips were supposed to be fun. I can't believe he's actually going to make us do work." Timothy glanced at his friend and distractedly grunted in agreement before turning back to the specimen in the jar. It's funny, he thought, how things that were once invisible suddenly become visible. The black-eyed creature continued to watch him, silent and unmoving, as if waiting for him to turn away so it could shift position . . . or maybe unscrew the lid. Timothy shuddered with the sudden thought that there might be countless other invisible things out there in the world that he'd never noticed before, watching him all the time. "The whole idea is dumb," Stuart quietly droned on, speaking over Mr. Crane's speech. "I mean, how are we supposed to know what to pick? Anything in the whole museum . . . ?" He glanced at Timothy. "You're going to have to choose for us. I don't really care." Timothy nodded. "I don't care either," he whispered. To his right, he heard a strange clicking sound. For a brief moment, he thought the thing in the jar had actually moved; then he quickly realized that the sound had not come from the shelves above but from two rows away in the back corner. The new girl was hiding something underneath her desk. She rested her left ankle on her right thigh and stared at something she held in the crook of her knee. Timothy heard the clicking sound again and watched as a small flame from a silver lighter burst at this new girl's fingertips. "Let's get you paired up," said Mr. Crane, taking a notebook and pen from his desk. As the teacher began to ask each student whom they would like to work with, Timothy watched the new girl in the last row continue to quietly flick the lighter open and closed. Like the specimen jars above her head, he'd never really paid attention to her before. She'd only been at the school for a month. She was quiet and didn't speak to anyone. She wore gray--sweatshirt, jeans, sneakers. If it weren't for her thick, messy red hair, she might have faded entirely into the wall. The next time she lit the lighter, to his surprise, she held it against her ankle. The flame raced up her white sock before extinguishing itself. Timothy couldn't have been more shocked if the thing in the jar had leapt off the top shelf behind her and landed in her lap. "This is going to stink," Stuart said, not noticing the pyro in the corner. Timothy was too fascinated by what she was doing to pay any attention to his friend. Stuart poked Timothy in the shoulder and said, "Right?" Suddenly, her brown eyes shifted toward him, and Timothy realized that he'd been caught. "Abigail Tremens?" The girl cupped the lighter in her fist and looked to the front of the classroom, where Mr. Crane was staring at her. "Yeah?" she said. "Who would you like to work with?" "Oh." Abigail let her eyes fall to the desk. "I . . . uh . . . don't know." Mr. Crane peered across the blank faces of his students, who waited in silence for him to continue. "Would someone please volunteer to be Abigail's partner? We've all got to have a partner." Abigail seemed to shrink into her seat with embarrassment. The class did not answer. Timothy absentmindedly scratched at his ear. Mr. Crane suddenly exclaimed, "Timothy July! Good." Surprised, Timothy managed a weak whisper. "But--" Mr. Crane didn't seem to notice. "Abigail and Timothy," he said pointedly, writing their names down in his notebook. Timothy turned around. The girl stared at him, her mouth open in shock. "Moving on. Stuart Chen, who would you like to work with?" Timothy glanced apologetically at the boy who had been his usual partner, whenever they'd been given the opportunity, since kindergarten. But Stuart's mouth was pressed tightly shut; his face shone faintly red through his olive skin. He glared at Timothy, sending a different type of fire across the three-foot aisle. Excerpted from The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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