BarryHutchison

First up, here’s a review of Mr Mumbles from Weirdmage’s Reviews. It’s a good ‘un. I particularly liked:

I have to end this with a little note. As you may have noticed this book was published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, and on the back cover there is a label that says 9+. This should in my opinion be treated like video-game labels, not fit for children under nine, but with no upper limit of how old you should be to enjoy it. My + is 27, and I see no problem in recommending this to anyone who likes a good scare regardless of age.

I couldn’t agree more with that, and judging by the amount of positive feedback I’ve had from adult readers, it’s not just children enjoying the series.

Now, Raggy Maggie is published on 5th of August, and press copies are only just being sent out. So, I have no ‘proper’ reviews to tell you about, but I think the following is more revealing that any review could be…

Yesterday, I started reading Raggy Maggie to my son, Kyle. The first few chapters have one or two unsettling moments, but in general aren’t too bad. We made it to about chapter six before calling it a night, despite his protests that he wanted more.

Tonight he got more. We read up to chapter eight and I put the book down. Chapter eight, however, ends on a BIG cliffhanger, and he begged me – literally – to read the next chapter. Eventually, I gave in, and we read chapter nine. That was two hours ago.

He’s still awake. And still terrified.

I’ve tried everything to get him to go to sleep, but he’s too scared to close his eyes. While I was through comforting him, his baby sister started crying in the next room. He grabbed onto me, shaking with fear, telling me not to go in case it was a trap.

I told him that if the book was scaring him that much, we should stop reading it. But no, he wanted to continue, he wanted the next chapter right then. And the next one. And the one after that. He’s more scared than he has ever been in his life, but he doesn’t want it to stop!

I call that a result.

And possibly a serial killer in the making.