The Hiddenseek

July 1, 2021
For Holly and the other children trapped there, the Hiddenseek is an alternate world involving a nightmarish, high-stakes game of hide-and-seek. As the imposing, ghostlike, adult figure of Oliver approaches Holly when she's at the park, readers are thrown right into the action before the end of the first chapter. Oliver takes Holly to the Hiddenseek, a terrifying place where children are desperately hiding from It, a woman in black who hunts them in the guise of a wolf or a raven and who, with a touch, can turn them to stone. Holly's younger brother, Hector, also lands in the Hiddenseek, and it's a desperate, terrifying race to remain hidden from It and find a way home. Cernosek doesn't waste words and never slows the pace. There are a few surprises, though they're not wholly unpredictable to horror lovers, and the plot-driven storyline comes at the expense of more nuanced character development. It's hard to get more than a two-dimensional sense of Holly and Hector's relationship as siblings or of the other children in the Hiddenseek, who mostly come and go quickly. All of that said, this one is all about the action, which Cernosek certainly delivers. Readers will likely assume that Holly is an older tween, though characters' ages aren't explicitly stated. Holly and Hector have olive brown skin, but their ethnicity is not specified; most characters are presumed White. A fresh page-turner of a story appropriate for beginning horror fans. (Horror. 8-12)

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August 20, 2021
Grades 3-5 After a game of hide-and-seek gone awry lands Holly and Hector Thorn in the Hiddenseek, a cursed realm that appears to be time-trapped, they must struggle to stay out of the path of IT, a nefarious witch, before they are turned into statues for eternity. Along the way, they encounter fellow hide-and-seekers who have been left behind in the haunted land, with whom they band together to break IT's curse and return home. Cernosek's eerie, fast-paced narrative and fresh concept is perfect for fans of R. L. Stine and younger readers ready for the likes of Stephen King, with chilling dialogue, effective jump scares, and an intriguing mystery to unravel. As this brother-sister pair races against time to avoid IT and save the rest of their fellow playmates, every step of the way is filled with shadows and monsters and a possible plummet into the jaws of IT, an otherwise nameless force of evil that only grows more terrifying as the pages turn.

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