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496th out of 1,129 books
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4,652 voters
Fiendish Deeds (Joy of Spooking #1)
by
P.J. Bracegirdle (Goodreads Author)
It's the terrible town on the hideous hill -- and Joy Wells is a proud resident. A fan of classic horror stories, Joy is convinced that famous author E. A. Peugeot based his spine-tingling tales on Spooking. Take the eerie similarities between the nearby swamp and the setting of his masterpiece, "The Bawl of the Bog Fiend." Could the story be true? Could the bog fiend be o...more
Hardcover, 192 pages
Published
August 5th 2008
by Margaret K. McElderry Books
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Joy Wells lives in the crumbling town of Spooking with her parents and her younger brother, Byron. Spooking lies high on a hill overlooking the city of Darlington. The town has seen better days, most of the homes are uninhabited or need major repair. The shops on Main Street are all closed. The few kids that live in Spooking are bussed down to Darlington to go to school.
Darlington, down the hill from Spooking, is a perfect and unimaginative place. The houses are all alike and the people are all...more
Darlington, down the hill from Spooking, is a perfect and unimaginative place. The houses are all alike and the people are all...more
This first book in The Joy of Spooking series introduces the very original and very strange character of Joy Wells. Wise beyond her twelve years, Joy enjoys dressing in the vintage clothes of dead people, sneaking into graveyards and other haunted places in the middle of the night, and reading scary stories, especially those written by the mysteriously vanished author E.A. Peugeot. Joy lives in a dying town called Spooking, but since there is no school she and her brother are forced to go to sch...more
Nov 11, 2012
Charlyn Trussell
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Grades 5 and up
Shelves:
adventure,
bullying,
ecology,
family_story,
fiction,
humor,
horror,
mystery,
series,
strong-female-character
Joy Wells is a loner, primarily because she lives in Spooking, a rather depressing suburb to Darlington, and because she
is
more than a bit strange for an elementary school child. She and her brother are outcasts at the school they attend in Darlington because they are "spookies," unloved, ignored, and/or attacked by the "darlies." Joy dresses in vintage clothing she finds in the cellar and spends her time reading the horror stories of E. A. Peugeot (love the Edgar Alan Poe similarity) and tryi...more
A book for the older kids in the family. A twisted 11 year old (not unlike my eldest daughter) seeks proof of a monster lurking in her town's bog. Spooking, an older core of a tacky bedroom community, is a decaying, mouldering town with a sinister and morbid past. The surrounding city of Darlington with "plastic" cookie cutter houses and factories built up around Spooking over the years,seek to destroy the old nearly abandoned town up on the hill. This is the first of three volumes about the "Jo...more
Just as I suspected it would, The Joy of Spooking: Fiendish Deeds has earned a place on my list of all time favorites. I love the concept, I love the characters and the storyline is engaging and relevant. But most of all I love P.J.’s writing – it’s my exact kind of slightly dark humor and is full of gems like Joy’s brother Byron’s thoughts when the two meet a filthy but surprisingly friendly old “witch” woman at the bog:
“Byron continued to stare at her suspiciously. He’d read the fairy tales, a...more
“Byron continued to stare at her suspiciously. He’d read the fairy tales, a...more
Fendish Deeds, the first book in the Joy Of Spooking series, centers around a hill called Spooking which sits outside the much more sunny and normal town of Darlington. Following one of the hill's inhabitants, Joy Wells, she sets out to save her town from destruction when plans for a new waterpark threatens the spooky site.
Although the book gives off the right vibe in the beginning, I felt like Bracegirdle didn't take things far enough. From the impression I got from the cover and first few page...more
Although the book gives off the right vibe in the beginning, I felt like Bracegirdle didn't take things far enough. From the impression I got from the cover and first few page...more
Joy and her brother Byron are Spookies, meaning they live in the creepy town of Spooking rather than the shiny new town of Darlington. Joy is fine with this because she is all about anything different or odd. When Joy discovers that the folks in Darlington intend to build a water park and destroy her beloved bog (home of the Bog Fiend) she is determined to stop the plan at any cost. But there are people just as determined to see the bog destoyed and Joy may have just bitten off more than she can...more
Eerily atmospheric and delightlfully spooky - but, because there are no outright monsters (other than the human kind) yet, it won't give younger kids nightmares.
Though cursed with long blonde hair (rather than the raven tresses she was clearly meant to have), Joy doesn't fit in with the other kids from the suburb of Darlington (the "darlings"). A horror-obsessed young resident of the town of Spooking, Joy becomes convinced that her favorite author E.A. Peugeot is actually from Spooking - and t...more
Though cursed with long blonde hair (rather than the raven tresses she was clearly meant to have), Joy doesn't fit in with the other kids from the suburb of Darlington (the "darlings"). A horror-obsessed young resident of the town of Spooking, Joy becomes convinced that her favorite author E.A. Peugeot is actually from Spooking - and t...more
I loved Joy's "anti-priss" philosophy of life. Even though she is tormented by the "darlings" for living in Spooking, Joy never wishes to live in Darlington. She is happy being a "spooky" and is proud of her town. Of course she is drawn to all things mysterious and horrific, but is also her individuality that helps her to see past the old houses and crumbling buildings of Spooking. The mindless existence of the "darlings," with their need to dress alike and fit in, is much scarier to her than gr...more
I loved Joy's "anti-prim" philosophy of life. Even though she is tormented by the "darlings" for living in Spooking, Joy never wishes to live in Darlington. She is happy being a "spooky" and is proud of her town. Of course she is drawn to all things mysterious and horrific, but is also her individuality that helps her to see past the old houses and crumbling buildings of Spooking. The mindless existence of the "darlings," with their need to dress alike and fit in, is much scarier to her than gra...more
Nov 02, 2009
Kelly Moore
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
fantasy-middle-school,
middle-school-fiction
I labeled this book as fantasy, but I think it's a very mysterious fantasy. I expected it to be sort of like Lemony Snicket books - a witty, black humor kind of thing. It is like that, but it's also much more unusual than I expected. The author doesn't get all cutesy or spare any gory details - there are some very nearly adult themes in the book. The plot is clearly setting up for a series, so there are some elements that seem vague and confusing for now, but all in all I was very interested by...more
I enjoyed the darkness and spookiness that this book had to offer. But being the first of a trilogy, you won't find much of an "end" to this story ... it just feels like a beginning. I listened to this book on Playaway and thought the narrator was enjoyable. I'll probably pick up the next book if it's also available on Playaway. I wish there'd been a little more of a wrap-up in this book, rather than leaving everything for later books. All in all, it was still fun. Kids in upper elementary will...more
I liked this book about the Spookies and the Darlings. I enjoyed the contrast of the creepy, rundown town on the hill and the very clean, orderly suburb below. I wish we would have gotten more time in Spooking because I think that is probably the most interesting character in this series. I wanted to know more about its other citizens (what few there were) and what they did with their lives. As for the characters we do learn about I liked Joy and Byron. I thought they were fascinating and differ...more
i read a review of the second book in this series and it sounded promising, so i decided to start at the beginning and read this one. i couldn't even finish the book. i found the plot and setting to be fairly unimaginative and when i realized that it was a "save the whales and great horned owls" book disguised as a spin-off of the "pure dead" series by Debi Gliori... i just quit reading. bleh. not worth my time. if you want a good, funny read about the spooky life, check out the gliori titles in...more
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Children that grow up in relative comfort, love, and sanity get sick of that stuff pretty early in. This is no reflection on the people who have raised them or the world in which they inhabit. It's just that when you live in safety and security you may wish to shrug off the quiet world in which you live with and make a break for anything that offers you dank corners and mysterious underpinnings. The essential premise of P.J. Bracegirdle's Fiendish Deeds did not at first appeal to me. In spite of...more
Reviewed by Rebecca Wells for TeensReadToo.com
Joy Wells, connoisseur of classic horror stories, the famous author E. A. Peugeot, and the swamp in her hometown of Spooking, has a problem. In fact, she has several.
First, she is forced to abandon her creaky old town of Spooking to descend to the suburban city of Darlington to attend school. Second, no one else seems to appreciate how amazing the spooky Spooking swamp is. And third, she has discovered that someone in Darlington has a plan to build...more
Joy Wells, connoisseur of classic horror stories, the famous author E. A. Peugeot, and the swamp in her hometown of Spooking, has a problem. In fact, she has several.
First, she is forced to abandon her creaky old town of Spooking to descend to the suburban city of Darlington to attend school. Second, no one else seems to appreciate how amazing the spooky Spooking swamp is. And third, she has discovered that someone in Darlington has a plan to build...more
Hard-core horror meets sumptuous simile in this gripping exploration of siblinghood, self-destruction and sanitized sameness.
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You can listen in on our chat about this book on our Just One More Book! Children's Book Podcast.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487.
I was drawn to this book for the cover, which I found just marvelous, but the story itself was a bit lacking. With less than twenty pages left in the entire book, I felt like I was still waiting for the plot to develop. Additionally, there were several bothersome hanging plot threads that began development with a roar, and then roared off into the distance, apparently out of sight.
And one well-written sequence featured the seeming death of an interesting character, and the character later reapp...more
And one well-written sequence featured the seeming death of an interesting character, and the character later reapp...more
I am not sure what to think of this book. I like the author's humorous descriptions. But I found parts of it surprisingly dark for Children's book (in my opinion). Due to this being the first book in a trilogy there isn't much of plot. It just the beginning of the story. On the other hand, it left me curious enough to read the second book when it comes out.
I really wanted to like this one - macabre little girl who haunts cemeteries and solves mysteries...but it just didn't do it for me. The writing was not always what I wished for and the jump from narrator to narrator was bit annoying at times. Not to mention that some curse was hinted at, but never explained.
When I started reading this on my Kindle I had no idea it was a young adult story. However, it was a really well developed tale of a Spooky girl who has an imagination to match any dreamers. Great story with real characters and everything you'd want from a fantasy fiction. Can't wait to read the next one.
I thought that it was an amazing book that was pretty creative and that is what I look for in a book. It was actually even kind of spooky, wich is a plus! Anyone who likes this kind of book should try this book. My friend likes this kind of book but did NOT like this book. So, I guess it really depends.
4.5 stars
Reasons why I love the main character, twelve year old Joy Wells: She loves reading horror stories, has a pet bullfrog named ‘Fizz’, her favourite holiday is Halloween, she cares about the environment and is highly inquisitive.
A humorous children’s book with a lovely moral.
Reasons why I love the main character, twelve year old Joy Wells: She loves reading horror stories, has a pet bullfrog named ‘Fizz’, her favourite holiday is Halloween, she cares about the environment and is highly inquisitive.
A humorous children’s book with a lovely moral.
Fiendish Deeds is an awesomely spooky gothic themed book. I really like the gothic theme of it, it is sort of like Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events but it has a different feel to it. Which makes it all the more spellbinding. Joy Wells is also a wonderfully created character, very believable. As I read the book, I wanted to step right into it and help Joy save the bog. And her brother, Byron, is just as wonderfull.
The plot was great. I was always wondering what was going to happen ne...more
The plot was great. I was always wondering what was going to happen ne...more
high level read for middle school -- vocab and jumping around. the ending made me feel like I missed something. I would hand this book to only very particular kids -- the murders and parents who were too easy to dislike. A disquieting book. . .
A bog near Joy Wells' house is going to be turned into a water amusement park. Distraught at the very idea, Joy tries to find a way to stop the progress of the park. Lots of additional themes throughout the book, such as bullies, class distinction, etc. First in a series - but I really don't feel like reading any of the rest of them.
I finished this book rather quickly, what a great surprise! I went in expecting the same old thing and found the writing to be very funny and engaging!
I liked this. I wanted to like it more though. Maybe the second will be better
Rod got this for me for Christmas. I love the girl on the cover. In fact, I want to be her. Just look at her hat and coat. What's not to love?!
Listened to this one because Katherine Kellgren was the reader. Nice dark humor.
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Born in Montreal, P. J. Bracegirdle has done everything from keeping the stage door of a haunted old Scottish theater to pushing laundry carts along dark tunnels under an insane asylum. His last job involved pretending to write thick manuals nobody really read for products few people ever used.
"Becoming an author was my life's work," says PJB, "if, that is, a life's work can consist of staring off...more
More about P.J. Bracegirdle...
"Becoming an author was my life's work," says PJB, "if, that is, a life's work can consist of staring off...more
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