While I love the concept of the story, it just didn’t work for me as a middle grade horror book. If this book was being marketed as adult horror and the characters were a bit older, then I would have given 4 stars. The world building was fantastic and I really enjoyed the relationship between the main character and his best friend, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with the violence and torture in a book for middle grade-age kids. I read a comment on Goodreads by the author about how he wanted to push the boundary and kids deserve more from their scary stories, and while I’m all for pushing boundaries and upping the scare factor in the MG/YA genres, this was a bit too much for me.

CW/TW: Child abuse, animal abuse, torture, and bullying

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

***

The Torture Chamber is exactly how a child might feel about a classroom with a playground view. I loved that detail.

This is the kind of book that would have drawn me into reading as a child, the kind that fostered a healthy love of books throughout my life.

I think middle grade readers will find several things to love about this book. It's relatable, exciting, and just the right dose of spooky.

Hi all!

Today I am back to review another new release – The Black Slide by J.W. Ocker – which will be available on August 16th 2022. I was permitted to read an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) thanks to NetGalley. I’ve read two of J’s other books in the past and rated them very highly. He’s an excellent writer!

Griffin Birch isn’t known for being brave, but there’s something about the new slide on the elementary school playground that’s made him curious. Against his better judgement, he just has to follow his best friend Laila down. But the Black Slide is no ordinary piece of playground equipment. What Griffin and Laila find at the other end of this strange portal is a cruel world, populated by bloodthirsty creatures on a quest to become immortal. And it’s up to Griffin to save himself, his best friend and the future of earth itself.

As always, I am going to provide my honest thoughts and let you know whether I think this middle-grade horror novel is worth checking out or not. Without further ado, let’s get into it!



WHAT I ENJOYED
The concept itself was incredible. A scary playground slide that leads to evil? Count me in! The author described this novel as Hellraiser for kids and I was 100% here for that. I absolutely love when children band together to overcome darkness. Their strength and courage always blows me away. I think that’s why I love IT so much. The sweet dynamic between Griffin and Laila had me rooting for them from the beginning. Furthermore, the descriptions of the monsters (or the Merciless as they are known) were so wildly unique, I actually had to stop reading to picture them in my mind. J is so gifted at creating original creatures (as I saw in The Smashed Man of Dread End – review here). The slide itself felt like its own entity. It completely creeped me out. This book brought the scares and I have no doubt teenagers will enjoy this story.

WHAT I DIDN’T ENJOY
This is quite a short novel. I believe it’s just shy of 300 pages. I will say that from the moment Griffin went down the slide, the events were so fast-paced I struggled to keep up. The portal to the other realm confused me at times. They moved around very quickly. I wish we there had been more chapters dedicated to the different parts of the alternate reality. That’s really my only complaint!

OVERALL STAR RATING
I gave this a 3.5/5 stars. I had a great time reading it.

If you are interested, you can order a copy here.

I hope you enjoyed this honest review. Let me know your thoughts down below. I appreciate all feedback. Thanks for reading!

Peace & Love xoxo

Disclaimer: This post contains a link to my Book Depository Affiliate. I am not being paid or sponsored for this post/products – all my thoughts/opinions are my own

1 star

TW: Parental abuse of a child, animal abuse

I believe that horror, particularly horror for young readers, is a particularly powerful genre because it provides a metaphoric language through which we can explore the difficult, indescribable, and particularly negative emotions and experiences that exist in the real world. Where this book fails, in my opinion, is when it abandons the fantasy for the real thing. At a point in the novel, the alien monsters that torture kids fade into the background as our main character, an eleven-year-old boy, vividly recounts his experience being physically abused by a parent, including a scene of graphic animal abuse of a beloved pet. Personally, I don’t believe that these scenes, as explicitly portrayed here, belong in a book for middle-grade audiences; moreover, I think the scene’s inclusion does the book a disservice.

While monsters torture kids in this book, it’s undertaken in a setting so alien as to be total fantasy, a layer of removal from the ‘real’ that invites the reader (young or old) to think about the role pain has in human life, and how other life forms might conceive of it. It also allows for an exploration of how these kids respond to difficulty, betrayal, and helplessness, all in a fantasy setting that magnifies and distorts the difficulties of real life. Then actual, graphic child abuse—more graphic than the veiled and mysterious torture the kids undergo at the hands of the actual monsters—pops up on the page. Any intended tie-in to the themes of the horror fantasy is clumsy and tenuous; the metaphor is literalized and loses all power it could have had.

I had issues with the novel before the on-screen child and animal abuse, but that scene knocked my rating down a full star. So let’s take a moment to examine the story independently of that aspect:

To be honest, I think the story’s ratios are off. The length, subject, and age target are all slightly mismatched; it’s too fantasy-adventure to be horror, too abstract to be fantasy-adventure, too brutal for eleven-year-olds, too slow and colorless to be properly gruesome. I found myself thinking of May Bird and the Ever After, a middle-grade horror-tinged fantasy adventure that I think absolutely nails that genre tightrope; in comparison, The Black Slide just felt underwhelming.

I think a big part of the problem lies with the bizarro world the kids slide into down the titular Black Slide. It’s just too alien to be properly horrifying. The monsters are described in terms that make them hard to visualize without just looking, well, goofy: skinny beings with round, chalky-white heads clad in the Organization XIII uniforms from Kingdom Hearts, except somehow more emo.

Where I think the book shines the best is in the relationship dynamics between our human kid protagonists. None of them are very interesting on their own, but Griffin and Laila’s friendship, and insistence upon hope through their individual passions, is very nice, as is the fact that they must team up with (and see new sides to) Griffin’s schoolyard bully, who I wish got more screentime as I feel we didn’t do more than scratch the surface of his personality.

But I just felt so let down by the nightmare world, which felt more frustrating than scary, and the heavy-handed way in which Griffin’s traumatic real-world past was included. This is not to say that I don’t think middle-grade books shouldn’t tackle the tough subjects: they absolutely should. But the way it was handled in this book left a bad taste in my mouth. Rather than provide language and room to explore feelings about the various injustices of the real world, the scenes just landed as the sort of gratuitous cruelty that characterizes bad adult horror. Seeing it in kids’ horror just made me angry. It reads as shock value, and as written I think it would retraumatize rather than empower kids who have lived that experience.

There’s better middle-grade horror out there, including far scarier middle-grade horror, that handles equally dark and disturbing content in a way that I think is actually productive to living with and working through those experiences. This book, in my opinion, misses the mark.

I adore middle grade horror. So a book that promises that the ‘playground isn’t fun anymore’ sounded right up my alley. Not to mention that the cover is absolutely awesome and made me wonder what happens when the kids slide down it. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

The story starts off terrific. There’s a torture chamber (classroom) that looks out onto the playground where a new black slide has been put in. But there is something ominous about this slide. Every kid can feel it and no one wants to go on it. But eventually someone does – Griffin, our main character, when he is bullied into sliding down it and that’s where the horror and mystery really starts.

But then I found the next sections a little too slow, which was a shame. The kids are in a nightmare-type world, but it was more of them going or running to places and I never felt the same dramatic tension that I did when the slide was first being introduced. The nightmare world gets to described to us, but I never felt the kids fear and as a result I didn’t feel any fear on their behalf. The creepiest part to me ended up being how one of the kids, a girl, seemingly accepted the pain and the nightmare, as if it were inevitable. She didn’t want to be free or maybe she did, but felt she had to experience pain first. The action picks up in the second half of the book when the kids start interacting with those in the nightmare world. The plot progresses a little faster and I enjoyed it more at that point.

All in all, there were parts I most definitely enjoyed, but there were parts that were a little slow for me. So, a mixed bag. But, then there is the ending, which I loved. Perfect for a horror book.

Rating: 3 Stars

Thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

Unique and interesting story. This book is great for the younger horror fans out there, they won't want to put it down.

A new, ominous black slide appears on the playground one day and Griffin manages to go down it first, and breaks a bone in the process. But now, Griffin notices how children stop coming to school, how none of his teachers notice, and how his best friend, Laila, seems to be drawn to the slide. When he sees her getting ready to take a trip down the slide, he goes in after her. Where they come out is a completely different world filled with creepy creatures on their own quest. I really enjoyed this middle grade horror book and how different it is than anything out there for kids right now. The characters were enjoyable and likeable, and I loved the idea of having something like a slide become something scary and ominous. It really reminded me of Stranger Things quite a bit. Definitely worth picking up for school or public libraries or for any kid who is in to middle grade horror.

When a new slide emerges in the school playground, Griffin is challenged to be the first to go down it to stop his bully. But when Griffin emerges, the world he comes to is no longer the same bright colorful world, but filled with cold dark metal.

What an amazing horror middle grade read! Honestly, this is more up the lines of a YA horror in my opinion just because the author is so good at imagery. He paints the picture so wonderfully that you really start to feel like you are the one in the book. The only thing with this book is the beginning is insanely slow! I almost wanted to give up, I just felt like it was taking forever to take off.

To put simply:

This is a Middle Grade cosmic sci-fi horror and is not typically a sub genre I enjoy

There are good main characters, the story is well written and easy to read

The Merciless (the villains of the story) are weird sounding and the word eye-cones make me feel sick

I LOVE the idea of a slide that takes you to another world, especially given my recent slide antics

I felt that the ending happens very quickly in comparison to the rest of the story

Overall, an interesting take on a well loved piece of playground equipment, but cosmic horror isn't for me.

Also, just to rub it in your face, friend of the bookclub, JW came to our meeting and he really is a fascinating person.

I love this! Genuine scares while it is still age appropriate. I think there are a lot of authors for young horror that downplay what they can handle. This book also brings up topics that are great for critical thinking for younger readers and big themes and questions

Review in 10-ish words: Middle grade read filled with horror and friendship.

Synopsis: Boy goes down terrifying, huge black slide in school playground and emerges in a terrifying, metal filled world.

My Thoughts:
I haven't read middle grade horror for a hot minute so this was fun!
Some of the visuals and sensory experiences created were so effective for me and made for a terrifying background to the story at hand. I will say this is the probably the scariest book I've read that has been aimed at a middle grade audience. I don't necessarily think that's a good or bad thing, but it's worth mentioning! I would encourage (especially for younger audiences) you to check CW.

I liked the two main characters in the story. I thought their friendship was warming and I loved seeing them interact through the story. The adult characters in the book (mostly Griffin's mother and the teacher) did come across as shallow, but then again they were not the focus of the story.

The story itself started a little slow for me. It felt like I was waiting to 'get to the point,' but it did eventually pick up in terms of plot and tension.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review

This is a book of every weird kid’s dream. It’s refreshing that horror is becoming bigger in middle grade. I come from the generation that only really had Goosebumps and I was obsessed. Unfortunately as my reading level progressed they didn’t do much for me but I wasn’t quite ready for the adult horror. I would have LOVED having this book as a kid. It pushes the boundaries of middle grade. It’s uncomfortable but also one heck of an adventure. But I will say….this is not for the faint of heart. It is creepy and cringey and downright weird. Just what a weirdo like me loves. It’s also not dumbed down so it’s perfect for kids that have a higher reading level.

I was lucky enough to to be apart of a book club meeting that the author attended. Something he said that made me like the book even more was that he wasn’t writing it to have some great lesson bestowed upon the readers but to create a sense of wonder. And I liked that. I liked the idea that there are books out there that’s only purpose is to fuel the imaginations of kids. Especially when it comes to horror. And adults like me I guess.

I would recommend this for teens/adults and middle grade kids that really enjoy some weird stuff and have a good stomach.

Honestly I don’t think this should have been a middle grade book and I don’t recommend kids reading it. Children being tortured and just the overall message of this book of life can break you as long as you make it through that’s all that matters was just really disconcerting. Overall just left a bad taste in my mouth. Also I know this was an arc so it isn’t the final book but there was some serious flow issues with how this was written that made it hard to get into, the way the chapters would just end abruptly and the next chapter would be completely different from where it just left off was strange. This is gonna be a spoiler but an example of this was when they were at recess and nick went down the slide and disappeared, it was just so weirdly worded and the mc saw everything happen but instead of reacting or anything it cuts to the next chapter with him getting ready for school the next morning and we don’t see him addressing nick vanishing until the end of that chapter and it was so off handed how it was mentioned I just was really surprised by that.

Overall I would recommend this for a very specific type of reader but it definitely isn’t gonna be for everyone and as I said I wouldn’t recommend this for kids. Probably older kids like 12-13 at least but even still it’s a bit much.

JW Ocker has been a auto buy author for me since discovering Twelve Nights at Rotter House and this book is no different, preorder is already done.

A special thank you to JW Ocker for pushing this eARC for us for our bookclub, this book was more than I was expecting. The only way I could have loved it more if it was an adult horror novel, because I think it could have made an amazing novel. But the MG Horror is spot on and can't wait for my stepdaughter to read this one.

#TheBlackSlide This is hands down the scariest MG novel I’ve ever read but also the most beautiful. Between existing in my own trauma and teaching kids who have and hold onto trauma, this is so necessary. There is always this mindset that everyone needs grit and resilience to survive. But what about joy? What about those feelings of hope that everyone deserves to not only get through and conquer, but also to overcome and LIVE. This is the story of 5th grader Griffin, his best friend, and his school yard bully. What happens when you go down your playground slide but don’t arrive at the end? What happens when a world of rock and metal is out to grind your very being? This is terrifying to the point where it hurt, but my eyes tears rolling on the last page. Kids need to see books where being tough and made of “metal” isn’t what life is made of, that culture needs to change. We need more books just like this to be able to do that.

I am a little biased here because JW is my favorite living author. But, wow does he continue to outdo himself. He has crafted what I am now considering the scariest middle grade reader I have ever read, and believe me...I read a lot. He took the rules of hope and sparkle-filled eyes that most middle grade books provide and left us gutted. I love this book so much and I cannot wait for all of my friends to read it.