Book Review: The Clackity by Lora Senf
Title: The Clackity
Author: Lora Senf
Release date: June 28th, 2022
While I read a lot of dark fiction books, I would say I’m lacking in any depth of exploring the dark fiction releases in the Middle Grade and Young Adult categories. Usually, the ones I read come from recommendations from my friend, Tony Jones, who is perhaps the most knowledgeable reviewer out there regarding what hits and what misses for these age categories.
‘The Clackity’ was one that he highly recommended and I knew I would need to read it. After I actually won a giveaway copy of this from the author, I decided to hold off and make it one of my first reads of 2023 and boy was it a great book to dive into for a fresh reading year.
What I liked: The story follows early-teen, Evie, who is now living with her aunt, Des, after her parents disappeared following a house fire. Evie doesn’t believe her parents are dead, but she also has no idea where they are. Des happens to live in the haunted town of Blight Harbor, and on one particular day, as she explores an old abandoned slaughterhouse, Evie joins her. They both feel a dark presence and leave, scared. But when Des goes back without telling Evie, she disappears and Evie knows she needs to find her.
It’s at this point that Senf really begins to work her magic. Up to now, we have a strong bond and we see how the two of them have connected since Evie has moved in, but when Des goes missing that gets ramped up and, aided by a little bird, Evie does whatever needs to be done to find Des.
The crux of the story is this – a strange, shadow-dwelling ‘thing’ known as The Clackity makes and agreement with Evie. If Evie can bring The Clackity a notorious killer wandering this other dimension/plain before nightfall, The Clackity will save and give back her aunt. It was really reminiscent of the plight Sarah faced in the movie Labyrinth and parts of the story really reminded me of that movie, which was great. To a degree, I also saw elements of The Neverending Story, as well as the fantastic MirrorMask.
I think that’s what made this one feel special to me. Senf tapped into that nostalgic part of my brain where I loved these dark/scary fantasy stories where nothing is what it seems, everything is a riddle needing to be unraveled and ultimately you need to just jump and believe in order to survive.
The character of The Clackity was really well done. Every time it appeared, you knew you were in for a creepy moment and one that would make your skin crawl.
The ending was powerful, emotional and did a great job of wrapping it up as well as potentially leaving us the opening to continue on the story with Evie and the search for those she loves more than anything.
What I didn’t like: I think the hardest thing for me as an adult horror reader is knowing that things won’t get crazy or too extreme in the Middle Grade reads. It doesn’t mean there isn’t chills, thrills and loss, but it does mean you won’t get ripped open throats or spilled organs, so keep that in mind.
Why you should buy this: My son is six and we’re just beginning to dive into longer reads with less pictures. This one is illustrated at points which I think if you have a young reader at home you want to dip into the dark waters with, this would be a perfect place to start. This is told with a flowing narrative that sucks the reader along and will keep you rooting for Evie until the very last page.
I really loved this one and I do hope Senf continues Evie’s story and her search for the truth.
5/5
