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I only vaguely remember reading this as a kid. I remember things like his corduroys going whip-whip as he walks, which is still the best way to describe corduroy pants! I remember the Fuse Box Dwarf, who jumps out and says, "Dreeb! Dreeb!" when you go into the cellar. I think I read it when I was a bit older, not the target audience, and I remember hearing a lot about it as a kid. I know there are lots of people who cite this as one of their all time favorite books. It's not one of my favorites,
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This book was a re-read for me. I had added the book to my to-read stack after deciding to revisit Bellars as a whole, and bumped it up the list after I went to see the movie with friends. I was surprised to see that the movie was fairly faithful to the book, even if it did add a bunch of extra stuff that wasn't there to begin with. Some of it was cool (the showdown at the end and some of the extra magic in the house), while some of it wasn't (the topiary lion). Overall, though, I can appreciate
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Lewis goes to live with his uncle in a creepy old house that used to belong to and evil wizard. To impress the kids at school, he tells them about it, and accidentally sets a chain of events in motion that starts up the Doomsday Clock hidden somewhere within the house. This clock is set to destroy the world!
Creepy fun, if you are only going to read one book by John Bellairs, this is the one you should read.
Creepy fun, if you are only going to read one book by John Bellairs, this is the one you should read.
I remember having this book as a kid - this may have been the book that sparked my love of weird fiction and horror. But somehow I retained no memories of the plot; I only remembered that I had read it and that it had great illustrations by Edward Gorey.
So it was delightful to revisit this with a fresh mind - experiencing the story all over again. And I was not disappointed! Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman are awesome, fun grownups and Lewis is a believable, sympathetic character, even when he ...more
So it was delightful to revisit this with a fresh mind - experiencing the story all over again. And I was not disappointed! Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman are awesome, fun grownups and Lewis is a believable, sympathetic character, even when he ...more
This Halloween I decided to go back and some scary kid books-some that I read before and some that I hadn't read as a kid. My 4th frade teacher read us the second book in this series A Figure in the Shadows but I didn't think I had ever read the first book. After reading this, parts were familiar and I'm really not sure if I did read this as a kid. I think this would have scared me as a kid (as the 2nd one definitely did)-obviously as an adult, it doesn't have the same impact. I am definitely fi
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Fifth printing, 1978.
Only slightly less creepy than when I first read it at my father's suggestion. ...more
Only slightly less creepy than when I first read it at my father's suggestion. ...more
How did I manage to miss John Bellairs as a kid? WITH Edward Gorey illustrations, for crying out loud. What a shame. I loved the off-beat, matter of fact tone of the book. Bellairs doesn't seem to be attempting any kind of realism, but still hits on fantastic observations about characters and human nature. The resolution is similarly off-beat, without too much drama - but the whole story builds up a nice level of creepiness, while always maintaining enough humor to stop it from being scary. Oh,
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I just thought it would be so much more, so much better.
Dec 12, 2012
Rachel Piper
added it
Aug 11, 2013
Michelle
marked it as to-read
Aug 16, 2018
Kate
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2019
Cindy
marked it as to-read
