My Rating: 4.5 stars

Dread Wood follows four Dread Wood students who are forced together during a Saturday detention. What started off like a boring detention, quickly turns into something of a nightmare, and definitely a detention that neither one of them will ever be forget.

Dread Wood is well written with characters that are great. They were realistic and the best part was they were all different, dealing with their own life problems both inside and outside of school. I enjoyed watching their friendship grow.

The plot although unrealistic, is one that I loved. It’s gripping and really creepy!! Even creepier if you don’t like spiders (like me). I will definitely never look at a spider the same way ever again especially when outside in an open green spaces.

This was such a fun yet creepy middle grade!! It’s fast-paced, gripping with a great cast of characters. I can’t wait to continue the series!! Definitely recommend, however be very cautious if you have a phobia of spiders, or don’t like reading about animals coming to harm!!

What’s it about (in a nutshell):
Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick is an MG Thriller that chills even the most mature heart. Four children report to school for Saturday detention, where all the events that day take a quick turn to spooky, sinister, and even life-threatening.

What I Enjoyed:
What I loved most about Dread Wood has to be the nonstop thrills that start very soon after the book begins. This is easily a one-sitting read on a typical day, and even though I was out of town when I read it, I still managed to read it in two sittings on the same day. I do love a story that packs on the suspense and thrills, and Dread Wood does not disappoint in this regard.

As an adult, I also enjoyed that there exist very profound life lessons about kindness, consequences, and the importance of friendship and cooperation in this action-packed story. These themes hit home in such a big way, especially since lives were at stake. I also enjoyed the little lessons on animals embedded in the story. The information is very cool, and when I was of MG age, I would have totally remembered all those facts and spit them back at adults in the most precocious (yet, angelic) way possible.

The story is told in 1st person by one of the four kids – Angelo. This choice of narration is what provides all of those elements that I like about it. Angelo is a smart kid who knows a lot about animals, enough to give both fear and solutions. And the world-building is spot-on, instantly pulling me in and immersing me in this unusual school setting within the Dread Woods.

Characters:
All of the characters are incredibly developed, especially considering their young age. The layers and layers of pain and insecurities grabbed my heart in a big way.

Hallie, Angelo, Gustav, and Naira are classmates but not friends. They all have secrets, and the mystery of how they came to be in detention that Saturday is surprisingly complex and comes together in surprising ways.

They each have a sad and challenging story to tell and learn from, and it is effortless to adore each of them.

What I Wish:
Of course, I wish that these kids continue to build on what they learned from the harrowing ordeal and tackle many more challenges together as a team.

To Read or Not to Read:
If you love fast-paced thrillers and aren’t too afraid of spiders, Dread Wood is just the book you will want to spend an afternoon enjoying.

Spoiler Free
This is a hard review to write as I genuinely really enjoyed this book right up until the reveal of the Villain’s motivation. Unfortunately the motivation for the villian’s is one of my most hated tropes and one that I think is actively damaging, especially in this day and age and particularly in children’s fiction. I have written a little spoiler review bellow discussing the particular reasons I detest this particular trope and the damage it can do. Due to that I couldn’t bring myself to give it a higher rating.

Ignoring that point this is actually an enjoyable read, hence my deep disappointment, it is extremely well written and entertaining even from arachnophobes. I wouldn’t say it is as much of a horror as it has been billed but more an action adventure with a bit of scariness thrown in. The four students are dynamic and likeable characters that as we get to know them and see their friendships blossom its really endearing. There is a nice undercurrent of friendship and humour about them as well as some great hidden disability rep.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the major red flag in the villain department this would have most likely been a 4/4.5 star read for me.

Warning Spoilers
I was actually genuinely crushed and disappointed when it was revealed that the villains were doing this as they were “mad scientists”. It is such a lazy trope, but it is also a really damaging one.

Yes, I see the irony in a plot about mad scientists making this scientist mad but we live in an era where trust in science and the scientific process is becoming less and less. We are surrounded by those denying the values of vaccines, that climate change exists and the daily efforts of science.

Perpetuating the myth at scientists are separate from the general population, that they don’t know when to stop and that they become so hyper-focused on their personal goals that they don’t realise the outcomes of their work is so damaging (don’t get me started on how that can also be damaging to the neuro diverse community) . This is a children’s book that paints the use of science and genetic engineering as evil, bad, and unable to be redeemed. The fact the characters disappear into the sunset suggests the author may use them again and that really terrifies me. We have to take the messages of science is bad, used for evil schemes, that science doesn’t know when it has crossed the line and must be stopped out of such plots, as that really isn’t how science works. We should be encouraging exploration of science at all levels, of engaging with scientific method, of open and honest questioning as this is the true face of science. I know this comes across as “won’t someone think of the children” but it is really “won’t someone think of the Scientists” constantly painted as Dr Frankenstein, Dr No or Dr Evil and rarely portrayed as a human being with family, love and hobbies (that don’t involve world domination).

With such an eloquently and well constructed plot it just really disappointed me that it was all thrown away on the Scientists are evil trope.

Kids love a good horror story, and since the golden age of Goosebumps there haven't been many. This could start to reverse that trend, and it absolutely deserves a place at the top of that pile.

This is a great, increasingly creepy story with a very quick lead in - in the first few pages the kids are already in trouble, and it only gets worse from there. I did find one thing a bit strange, but maybe it's a generation thing; do children not know Incy Wincy Spider these days? I'm a bookseller so I know for sure it's in the nursery rhyme books! Maybe these kids just don't remember music very well, I know some people don't.

Once I realised what was going on, I expected to be really creeped out by the monsters, but I think because they were so much larger than life - quite literally - it didn't freak me out as much as I thought it was. Which is nice - I like being able to go to sleep at night! Kids will have that lovely safe creepy feeling as things get worse and worse for our heroes.

I can't wait to read more in this creepy series, and I think kids will be really eager to read on as well.

Question: have you guys ever play The Floor is Lava? This is important to the review, so stay with me on this one. Well, have you?

Oh, this is part of a blog tour, organised by The Write Reads (thank you for having me as part of this tour!). But still, am going to be honest (would you expect anything else?)

From the author that bought us Crater Lake comes Dread Wood and oh, it's a humdinger!

What can be worse that having detention on a Saturday? Nothing, according to Angelo, Hallie, Gustav and Naira. But oh, how wrong they are going to be as, within minutes of turning up, they notice that something is very, very wrong. And that's before they see their teacher being dragged underground...

Something frightening is going on. The groundskeeper and his wife are acting weird, whistling Itsy Bitsy Spider. There are tremors under their feet and, soon, they realise that the very ground they are walking on isn't safe. As the four are forced to work together to survive the detention from hell, they begin to realise that them getting detestation at the same time might not have been an accident... Someone wants them to suffer...

Now you see why I asked at the very start of the post if any of you have played the Floor is Lava?

This has serious Goosebumps by RL Stine vibes. All the way through this, I kept comparing it to the earlier books in the series, mainly Stay Out of the Basement (I was going to say one or two others, but I haven't read the series in nearly 20 years so my memory is shot). It was a fast paced, spooky middle-grade read that Goosebumps and Crater Lake fans will devour.

This book does have a nice dollop of humour and, under it's spidery body, there is a heart and this does touch on dark subject matter such as child poverty, bullying, disability, pressure from parents, and a few others, which shows that our leads aren't bad, but are fleshed out and there are reasons for the way they behave and react.

But I had such fun with this! Yes, I saw the end coming (I'm in the mid-30s, I am not the target audience), but I would have hoovered this up if I was younger and was more into creepy/spooky reads. I am very excited to read the sequel (if there is one coming. Oh, please let there be a creepy sequel!).

Oh, by the way, if you are a fan of spiders, you might want to give this book a miss...

Incy wincy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And incy wincy spider climbed up the spout again

This fast paced, spine chilling, gripping, horror/adventure with a added dash of humour is the first in a series and introduces the reader to The Loser Club, Angelo, Gustav, Hallie and Niara. A group of twelve year old class mates whose Saturday morning detention turns into a terrifying battle for survival within the grounds of their school Dead Wood High.

The story is narrated entirely from the perspective of Angelo,a loner who is harbouring a lot of anger when we are first introduced to his character and is determined just to get through the detention without having any involvement with the other three students. But,as time passed and the day went from a frustrating inconvenience to strange and intriguing to absolutely shizing terrifying, it was heart warming to witness the changes in his character as the group began to gel and work together as a team. Like most people,each member of the group had their own personal issues and were each harbouring a secret that may or may not have been connected to the events that were currently unfolding. As with any group of people no matter what their ages are, each member of The Loser Club had their own unique personality and character traits. Unbeknownst to Angelo,he was a natural problem solver and leader, my favourite character Hallie was a feisty,take no shiz tomboy, Gustav (Gus) was the comedian of the group and Niara wasn't the uptight, preppy individual that she came across as at the beginning of the story. Another of my favourite character's was the teacher Mr Canton who was supposed to be supervising the group during the detention, his attempts to be 'down with the kids' were both cringeworthy and hilarious.Of course, no cast of a thrilling adventure isn't complete without the villains of the story and oh,boy, the bad guys of this tale were certainly sinister and creepy and not just a sandwich but a whole hamper short of a picnic. But, despite their actions, I actually thought there was a tiny bit of twisted logic behind a certain aspect of the motive behind their behaviour,that said,that doesn't mean that I am condoning their actions and behaviour in any way.

Wow....just wow, I shizing loved everything about this enthralling adventure (well apart from the spiders) I loved the various settings for the story and the intense atmosphere that permeated many of the pages. I loved the author's characterisation of her cast of vivid characters. What a brilliant start to what looks like is going to be a incredible series and I can't wait to find out what trouble the friends are going get themselves into in their next adventure The Fear Ground. I thought this addictive thriller is worthy of far more than five stars,is one of my favourite reads of the year so far and is very very highly recommended by little old me.

Title – Dread Wood

Author – Jennifer Killick

Genre – Middle Grade Horror

It’s been quite a while since I have went around reviewing a book but I couldn’t resist such a lucrative offer of picking this one up for The Write Reads Blog Tour. I had been pretty much contemplating my reading this year since I’m stuck in another Reader’s Block and a Middle Grade genre has always been my go to genre during such cases. The cherry on the cake was that Dread Wood was a Horror and nothing could have attracted me more than this.

About the Book


Angelo, Gustav, Hallie and Naira were all called for detention on Saturday for something as silly as a Food Fight. The Detention which was apparently supposed to be boring turned out to be not only creepy but also deadly. Their teacher gets dragged underground by an unknown pair of hands and its up to this odd group to find out what is happening at the school. The answer to this is apparently connects to something even more sinister and they are forced to solve this mystery to save their lives.

My Take on the Book

The book is mainly written as a first person account by Angelo who has always been an introvert and hardly has any friends. The book is quite a fun read but once the reader reaches halfway through, the creepy surprises that evolves hooks you on even more. The characters are pretty well thought of and even though one is able to predict the outcome to a certain extent, it is still a surprise when you read it from the perspective of the age group it caters to.

So, would I recommend this book. Of course, I will since it not only has delivered its promise of being a fun read but has also exceeded my expectations in the way it has been written. The author seems to be quite promising and to be honest, I’m surely looking for the sequel for which we have already been introduced to in this book.

My Ratings – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5 out of 5 stars)

Thank you to The Write Reads for organizing and inviting me to participate in this blog tour. Thank you, Farshore, for providing me with a copy of this book through Net Galley and tour materials in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that I want to say about this book is that if you have arachnophobia, you should probably avoid reading Dread Wood.

Dread Wood is what you get when you mix The Breakfast Club with Jurassic Park and add way too many legs. It is wonderful, creepy, and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

When four students at Dread Wood are forced to come together for Saturday detention, they aren’t expecting much. They aren’t friends with each other, none of them want to be there, and it’s out of character for them to wind up in Saturday detention anyway. What happens when they get there, and the gate to the school grounds closes and locks behind them, is more than they could have ever imagined. What started as lame, quickly turns into strange, and then things get horrifying very quickly. What follows is an afternoon of detention that will keep you on your toes and wary of what lurks in the shadows.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters in this book. I liked that they were all different and brought different things to the table. I also liked that all four characters were dealing with their own real-life problems that felt like realistic problems outside of school. I liked that once the characters began to open up to each other, and got to know each other a bit more, they were able to form a friendship and use each other’s strengths to their advantage. They were the kind of characters I could root for, and I enjoyed watching them work together to sort out the horrific situation they found themselves in.

I liked the mystery aspect of this book. It was clear that something creepy and sinister was going on, and I enjoyed trying to piece it together. I liked watching the characters work together to sort out the clues and sort out what was happening. Even though the reveal of what was going on was a bit disappointing and cliché, I still enjoyed it. I also thought the villains in this book were definitely super creepy.

Generally speaking, I like books that take place in schools, even creepy schools with creepy caretakers. The descriptions of the school allowed me to visualize the school grounds and remind me of all of the places I definitely want to avoid at that school. I am also very glad that I am no longer in school anymore because this book would make me want to avoid all greenspaces on any school property.

This book was creepy, but it was unrealistic enough (I hope) that it didn’t leave me super paranoid. That being said, I am glad that I read this book during daylight hours. I liked that this book wasn’t overly gory or violent, though a few scenes were a bit on the gory and violent side. Another thing to note is that there was some animal death and violence towards animals in this book, which was a bit difficult to read at times. This book was fast-paced, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was quick, creepy, and had a great cast of characters. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

Dread Wood by is brilliant!

It's very spooky, scary fun, with the atmosphere starting to build from the very first page, giving us a sense of ominous unease that only increases. After a short period of anticipation, we're thrust into a non-stop, pulse racing adventure as the dangers the children face around their school are revealed. It's done deftly, with the horror just increasing chapter by chapter as they try to escape, and we see more and more about what they're up against. There's an added scariness to the school setting too, an environment where children should feel safe, with adults who should be looking out for them, and suddenly everything is against them! This subverting of safe spaces gives the book a very real edge of horror that I just know children are going to love! This isn't a creepy woods at night, this is your own school!

It's not all scares though. This is a Jennifer Killick book, and like all Jennifer Killick books it comes with a beautiful mix of humour and heart. The humour is more toned down than the rather comic Alex Sparrow books, more mature, though it still has a cheeky tendency towards toilet humour jokes that still work so well.

It also deals with very real issues, and it does so sensitively and with obvious care. Each of our four child protagonists has a secret, at least one, and a reason why they're in Saturday detention. Those secrets are slowly revealed over the course of the novel. They're surprising, but they also feel so very real. Dread Wood deals with issues like child food-poverty and disabilities, but it never feels like a cheap shot. I'm sure there will be children who recognise themselves and what they're going through in these characters, and others who will maybe learn some empathy for the people sitting in class around them. There's a strong message here that you can't always judge someone from what they look like, or how they act, and you just don't know what people are going through in secret, how hard that can be and how it can change people.

At its heart, Dread Wood is a book about friendship, repentence, and giant spiders. It's beautiful, scary and so much fun!

Somehow, I misread the blurb of this story completely and went in expecting a ghost story, not a sci-fi featuring REALLY BIG SPIDERS. Jennifer is such a natural successor to R. L. Stine, this book creeped me out just as much as Stine's legendary Chicken Chicken and reminded me of Christopher Pike's Spooksville.

Somehow, the Breakfast Club trope never fails to win me over, which is used here - four kids on a Saturday detention, pushed to the limit and learning from each other. I loved that this story shows both poverty and disability in a realistic light, as well as family expectations.

This story balances sheer terror and way too many legs really well with light hearted moments and plenty of one liners from my favourite character, Gus. I'm really looking forward to seeing the gang in future books, with the promise of an unusual app / hide and seek game in the next book.

Four very different kids get detention. They seemingly have nothing in common, in fact for some of them it is extremely out of character! At first it seems like it's going to be the usual tedious detention, all four kids just keeping themselves to themselves. Then their teacher disappears and its like they have found themselves in a horror movie. And then it gets REALLY creepy!

Imagine Dread Wood being the name of your school, that alone is enough to let you know this is going to be CREEPY. This is the kind of book you want to read huddled up on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket and clutching your teddy bear for protection.

I loved all four of the main characters, despite them definitely NOT being friends at the start, they all had great qualities and I could see them growing to care about each other and the way they learn to work together is impressive. Then there's the Latchitts, perfect horror movie villains. It was completely gripping, I constantly had to stop myself from jumping ahead to find out what would happen next. I enjoyed reading this so much, scary, funny and intriguing all at once. I've heard rumours of a sequel and I am crossing my fingers that they are true.

Dread Wood was published a couple of days ago so if you haven't got your copy yet, what are you waiting for???

This book is so creepy but honestly so so entertaining. It’s a really unique thriller horror sci-fi book for middle grade to young teens and it’s so eerie and fun.

I loved the characters and instantly liked them which helps make it all the better, they had such a perfect dynamic and the mix of personalities made it perfect. They all were so smart and all had their own struggles, they all played a huge part in piecing together everything In the end and I seriously loved these kids. And also the evil villains should I say were amazing so so so creepy and sadistic even though they were bad I really liked them in a weird way.

The story was written so perfectly it was completely eerie the whole time, even when it was just subtle, the story had lots of twists and made me gasp in shock a few times. The spiders were terrifying had I didn’t prepare myself for what was going to come in this book at all.

I loved that through all the horrors, the eeriness and the creepiness the characters all learnt so much about themselves, about each other. I really loved that even though it was a horror and it was scary and creepy it also had a sweeter undertone with a sweet story of friendship and self discovery it really added another amazing element to the book.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, it was more eerie and just creepy than blatentent horror but it was written in such a great perfect way. I am intrigued now how the second story in this series will go but it’s going to be really good I know because this one was.

The last thing Angelo, Naira, Gus, and Hallie want to be doing on a Saturday morning is spending time with their oh-so-cheery teacher Mr Canton at a ‘back on track’ detention. But given that they all played a part in the great Dread Wood cafeteria riot, they don’t have much of a choice. When their teacher is apparently ‘eaten’ by a hole in the ground, however, it soon becomes apparent that this detention just might turn out to be deadly. Before long, the quartet are forced to become unlikely allies as they confront creepy caretakers, secret passageways, and subterranean horrors.

I was drawn into Dread Wood within just a few pages thanks to Jennifer Killick’s perfect balance between sinister foreboding, creepy mystery, and genuinely witty humour. The sparky dialogue and verbal quips exchanged between Angelo, Naira, Gus, and Hallie had me laughing out loud at many points, as did the attempts of their hapless teacher, Mr Canton, to be ‘down with the kids’. Combined with the development of a genuine friendship between the unlikely quartet, the jokes helped to take the edge off what is otherwise a genuinely creepy story of ‘monster’ proportions.

Without giving too much away (and nothing that can’t be inferred from a close examination of the cover), Dread Wood offers plentiful scares of the eight-legged variety. However, as a self-confessed arachnophobe, I can testify to Dread Wood‘s horror elements providing a healthy dose of scares without too much accompanying trauma. In fact, I learnt a number of very interesting facts about my eight-legged nemeses and came out of the book with a newfound and healthy respect for such remarkable creatures (albeit not a respect that extends to allowing them to live in my house).

Erring on the side of gripping and creepy rather than outright horror, Dread Wood has plenty of twists and turns – as well as lots of cliff-hanger chapter endings – to keep up the pace whilst the ending, although both reassuring and rewarding, hints at further adventures to come for Angelo and Co.

Offsetting the scares with a good dose of humour, this lively story of one very deadly detention is packed full of unlikely friendship and formidable foes. Offering a page-turning plot that doesn’t shy away from the scares, Dread Wood is a perfect read for 9-12 year olds looking for a fun but creepy mystery – or big kids looking to re-live those Goosebumps vibes!

I'm not usually a horror person (way too much of a scared-y cat!) but I had so much fun reading this book. This book gave me a creeping sense of unease and then action-filled danger without body horror or gore. It's creepy, but in a fun way - which is how I like my horror.

The book starts off with strange things happening, leaving the kids on their own. There's a nicely done "what's happening here?" vibe. A friend once described horror as a mystery that isn't fully explained, and that mystery element certainly stand out at the start as the school they know (but don't love!) turns out to not be so familiar.

Once the kids do find out what's happening, it's then a desperate race to survive in the face of some pretty nasty monsters. I do not like this creature, so that definitely ups the "nope nope nope, please get out of that situation FAST" factor for me! The forest section and then the finale were the most eeek for me, but I liked how they were also used to show the various expertise the kids had.

This combination meant I got both the anticipation/tension of the unknown, and the horror of knowing what they're up against. Not to mention being able to explore bullying through the mystery of why there were there.

This is a book that happens over one Saturday detention, but despite such a short page count and time, you still get a really good sense of what the children are like. They have nice, distinct personalities, with layers to reveal. They're also kids from an estate, by and large, which was nice to see that represented (particularly against a school setting that might have more easily been made into a private school!) Plus seeing these disparate kids with little in common come together as a team and then friends was really nice.

I highly recommend this to horror fans and those not to keen on the sort of graphic horror in films.

I have just bought four copies of this for the School Library because it's going to be huge and I'm going to be telling everyone about it! I'm not going to give any spoilers but suffice to say that this has everything that you want in a MG adventure thriller/horror story. A plot that rattles along and is so compelling that you won't want to put it down, characters who are genuinely funny, authentic and that you cheer for and some really, really nasty and unpredictable creatures. Killick manages all of this AND some gentle character development with a few genuinely heart warming moments but never at the expense of the pace or excitement. This book does the opposite of bore and that is why it rules!

I'd say this is Point Horror for a new generation. Better than Goosebumps and in the brilliant vein of R. L. Stein comes a great new voice in mid-grade horror.

Take four delinquents and give them a Saturday detention, then add crazy scientists, genetically modified spiders and a quirky P.E. Teacher and watch them go.

I cant tell you how much I adored this book, and yet how much it gave me the chills.
The fantastic descriptions of the creatures made my skin crawl and yet I fell head over heels in love with Gus. Irreverent, charming and just plain hilarious, I couldn't help it.
The rest of the characters had their own excellently nuanced intricacies and, despite the reason for their detentions, you couldn't help but be on their side.
I loved the reveal and the fun friendship group they had developed by the end and I also felt like I learned something about spiders. Namely don't go near them.

A genuinely enjoyable book.