Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book of Paul Tremblay's and while it started off eerie and entertaining, it just kind of fell flat especially towards the end. It helps that the story is short so you can read through it quickly. It kind of felt more like a goosebumps book, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, there just was not a lot of depth to it.

Another is a pleasantly creepy middle grade horror tale by the great adult horror author, Paul Tremblay. Like the Goosebump books, this novel, while set in a young person’s world, is a blast for adult readers too.

Casey is a preteen who is already dealing with bullying and tics when Morel shows up at his door. Morel is not quite a boy being made seemingly out of clay. But Casey’s parents enthusiastically allow him to stay for a few days. At first, Casey is glad for the companionship but then the nightmares start.

Another is just creepy enough to keep the reader, whether old or young, reading late to find out what happens to Casey. 4 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quill Tree Books for providing me with an advanced review copy.

Paul Tremblay jumps into middle age with both feet, deliver quite the creepy tale in Another. Casey Wilson is not exactly what you’d call the popular kid at school. Far from it in fact. So he’s puzzled when he finds out that his parents have arranged for him to have a sleepover. Who is this kid that is coming over? His name is Morel and he’s…he’s unlike anyone Casey has ever met before. He doesn’t speak, his skin is like clay…is he even real? As they days go on, Morel changes. His face takes on definition. He begins to speak. And is Casey only imagining it or does Morel sound just like him? And why is it that his parents seem to be paying more and more attention to Morel and less and less to him? This one was definitely creepy, take Goosebumps and kick it up a notch or two and that is what Tremblay has delivered. So different from his adult books but no less enjoyable. And while aimed at middle grade this one will absolutely delight his adult readers. I’d like to thank HarperCollins Children's Books | Quill Tree Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Another.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/another-paul-tremblay/1146452206?ean=9780063396357&bvnotificationId=830bacde-6853-11f0-8b06-0eb99d492c47&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/352657510

Though this is a YA horror book, I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult reader! Paul Tremblay is an expert in telling a horror story while exploring difficult themes that make you think. I loved the exploration of belonging, identity, perception, and acceptance through Casey’s journey. I felt a subtle sense of anxiety that helped the tension mount throughout the story.

I really liked every book I have read from Paul Tremblay, so I was excited to read this middle grade book. I am a huge fan of R.L. Stine as well, and this book reminded me so much of his books. I was very impressed with this book and definitely think adults will enjoy this just as much as middle grade aged readers.

After having previously read one of Paul’s adult novels, I appreciated how well he was able to translate horror to the young adult level. Another feels like an elevated version of a Goosebumps book and I think it’s perfect for the middle grade reading range!

My favorite part about this book was how Paul explored multiple types of horror, varying from the supernatural to social fears. The main character, Casey, is a great model for destigmatizing mental health and social challenges that are relatable to so many people, no matter their age. I definitely enjoyed this book and I’d recommend it to anyone in the middle grade range looking for a seriously creepy book!

Another (2025) by Paul Tremblay is a whip smart middle grade novel that packs enough scares to keep an adult audience engaged. Tremblay's prose crackles and it's backed up by compelling themes. But most of all, this book is a love letter to art and artists.

Oooo I enjoyed this! Paul Tremblay is a hit or miss author for me but this middle grade horror was in the hit category! Casey and Morel were interesting characters. The body horror was perfect for the age range in my opinion. I'm definitely going to be recommending this to younger readers.

Another is a middle grade horror book that follows middle school outcast Casey Wilson. After his sister goes off to college he feels especially alone. That is until his parents get a mystery phone call about a friend coming to stay for a sleep over. Soon Morel arrives ready to befriend Casey, but this strange boy seemingly made out of clay is far from what he appears to be.

I loved this book! It was an easy five star read for me. A big part of enjoying this book was the nostalgia it made me feel from my preteen days reading/watching Goosebumps. I found myself thoroughly creeped out while reading this and even dreamt about the strange going’s on in the story. The dynamic between Casey and Morel was well done and I enjoyed how the writing was age appropriate while also being scary! Without giving away any spoilers I loved the way Casey’s artwork played a part in the story and added a unique layer to what I was reading. The book was well paced, held my interest from start to finish and easy to read in one sitting if life allowed. I also liked how Tremblay wrote the storyline for the parents of Casey. Each character had their own part to play and it made the story really come together well. It was also fun to read the authors note and see how he incorporated some aspects of his own life into the story itself. As a book lover it’s so great to be able to feel when an author truly puts their heart and soul into their work. Personally, it makes me connect to and appreciate the stories being told even more. This is definitely a book I’ll be recommending to the kids in my life!

When I heard Paul Tremblay wrote a middle grade novel I was both excited and nervous. Every new novel of his has been music to my ears but I was anxious, since I’m not the target audience was I going to drag through it? To my silly surprise, at almost 30 years old, this creeped me out so much that I slept with the lights on twice while reading it!

I love that this was set in those really difficult parts of the pandemic because it brought a lot of reality to the book but also created an excuse for the strange things happening. Casey is already an introverted kid, the pandemic throws on another layer of isolation. So when this strange man visits with a new friend for Casey no one bats an eye, except for Casey. Who is this kid, Morel? Where did he come from? Why does he look so doll-like and made of clay? What does he want? Why is he here?

There are so many minor details in this book that really blew me away. I love the image that Paul creates for us and the emotion emanating off the page. This story was so creepy in such a subtle way and formed multitudes of despair. What spoke to me was Casey’s parents, the split emotion between their facial expressions and their words. The fear in their eyes and the calm stature of their voices. It sent chills down my spine like so many other moments from this ominous book.

This was incredibly nostalgic for a spooky reading millennial like myself. It brought me back to all of those amazing middle school books that got me to my favorite horror today. Hats off to Paul Tremblay for making nightmares for all ages! 😃

Another by Paul Tremblay
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is a fantastic and exciting middle grade horror/thriller!! It’s very original and I loved the premise of the story! It is a very interesting and entertaining read!
Casey, a middle schooler, has a surprise visitor staying over at his house for a few nights. This other kid is named Morel and he is very different and unique. He looks different, doesn’t eat or talk. Since Morel came for the short visit at Casey’s house, life began to turn upside down and drastic changes started to happen between Casey and Morel.
The story has it all; creeps, twists and even friendship and family love!
This book is a fast read and grabbed me from the beginning all the way through the end.
It’s written very well, had a good spooky feeling and I didn’t want to put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this book!
*It comes out July 22nd and is a must read!!*
☎️🍄‍🟫☎️🍄‍🟫☎️

Paul Tremblay has made a name for himself in the adult horror space and I was super excited to see how he entered the middle grade space. This was a fantastic middle grade debut for Tremblay. Another is a super quick but super eerie middle grade horror that will absolutely make you feel like you need to keep reading so you can figure out what's going on in Casey's house but most importantly why it's going on.

Obviously, as an adult I could put together the pieces fairly quickly, but this is the perfect horror for middle grade aged kids. Just enough hints are dropped where you could be putting the pieces together but it still keeps you on your toes guessing until the final reveal.

Paul Tremblay has made a name for himself writing horror novels for adults, like the chilling Horror Movie and profoundly frightening The Cabin at the End of the World, often toying with and confounding readers’ expectations to create memorable if sometimes polarizing stories. Having spent time as a teacher and youth basketball coach, it was perhaps only a matter of time before he wrote a book for young readers to help indoctrinate them to the cathartic pleasures of the genre while still possibly inducing a nightmare or two.

Young Casey Wilson is surprised by the appearance of a rotary phone in his house that his parents picked up the item in an antique store. Seeing as they have been out of common use for decades, he is confused by how to operate it. Nevertheless, his mother and father seem happy with the purchase and get it hooked up to a landline, claiming it could come in handy if cellular service were to go down (to which Casey asks who they would then call with it). To everyone’s surprise, it doesn’t take long before it rings. It turns out to be a man asking if his son, purportedly one of Casey’s friends, can come to spend the night, which his mom assents to. This wouldn’t be odd in and of itself, except that due to an embarrassing incident that took place over Zoom during his school’s Covid-19-induced hybrid learning program, Casey didn’t really have any friends anymore and was struggling with loneliness and anxiety.

That night, an eerie man appears at their door carrying a burlap sack and is inexplicably let in by Casey’s parents, who are beginning to behave strangely, possibly due to the influx of mysterious white dust (pollen?) accumulating throughout the house. Equally confusing, they aren’t phased at all when the man puts down the bag and a peculiar looking boy emerges. Introducing him as Casey’s friend Morel, despite Casey having never met him before, he exchanges a few pleasantries, imparts some instructions, and leaves.

Casey is understandably disturbed by what has just transpired, but his parents are acting as if the whole incident is perfectly normal and so he goes along with it, even beginning to find himself welcoming the company of the strange arrival. But as the sleepover spills past one night after another and things around his house become stranger and more sinister, Casey becomes increasingly alarmed and tries to figure out exactly what is happening to his family and himself before it becomes too late.

Tremblay is able to capture the voice of a middle school child very convincingly. Using realistic emotions and thought processes to explain why the character would make the choices that they do, he inspires deep sympathy for the character, which in turn makes the events that transpire more suspenseful and believably eerie. While this may be a children’s book, it is genuinely disquieting and will likely give readers of any age the creeps.

Older readers are likely to piece together where things are headed pretty early on, but that knowledge does nothing to lessen the story’s ability to induce a sense of dread as it hurtles towards a finale that is as heartbreaking as it is scary. Tremblay’s adult fiction tends to rely on ambiguousness to deliver chills, but he spells everything out here, and in so doing has crafted a memorably frightening tale that uses its fable-like atmosphere to contend with some of adolescence’s more painful emotions and fears.

This book is eerie, emotional, and full of dread especially as you notice something off about the family.

Casey has been having a hard time since the pandemic, and feels like he’s not as good as he used to be. Over his spring break, his parents bring home a mysterious phone and with it a mysterious boy who’s meant to be Casey’s “friend”. While initially glad for the company, Casey begins to notice odd things about his new friend, and soon they begin to spread to his parents and himself as well. With time ticking down until his “friend’s” father returns to retrieve him, Casey must dig into the deepest parts of himself and find a way to escape the thing slowly trying to take over his life.

This book was short, but read like a Twilight Zone episode. It felt like a slow burn, even though events happened pretty quickly and the pacing was consistent throughout. Casey was an enjoyable protagonist, and I think there is a level of being able to relate to feeling outcast and like you can’t get yourself where you want to be, especially when you’re a young teen. The final confrontation felt deserved, and while the parents were stereotypes at times, I do feel like they served the story in the way that they needed to, but that didn’t stop them from being frustrating throughout. Overall, this one was a fun ride and a nice quick read that left me feeling just a touch unsettled.

Paul Tremblay, known for his psychological adult horror novels like The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts, ventures into middle-grade fiction with Another. It’s a bold move, one that demonstrates his trust in young readers' capacity for emotional depth and subtle fear. Set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Another is not just a horror story but also a nuanced exploration of identity, family, and the anxiety that often accompanies adolescence.

The story follows 12-year-old Casey Wilson, a bright and introspective boy whose life has been quietly unraveling. The disruptions of the pandemic have left him socially isolated, stuck in a confusing mix of in-person and online schooling. A humiliating Zoom mishap further alienates him from his peers, and his mounting anxiety manifests in physical tics. Casey's home life, once a refuge, becomes strange when a mysterious man delivers a boy named Morel—who looks like a doll made of clay—into their household. Despite Morel’s odd behavior and unsettling silence, Casey’s parents seem instantly taken with him, even as Casey begins to feel pushed aside.

One of the most powerful aspects of Another is how convincingly Tremblay writes about the emotional weight of teenage embarrassment. There’s a specific kind of humiliation that comes with being 12 or 13, a raw vulnerability that can make even small social missteps feel like existential failures. Tremblay captures this brilliantly in Casey, particularly in the aftermath of his online school blunder. That aching, stomach-knotting desire to disappear—to be unseen, to have no one notice you at all—is rendered with an honesty that’s both painful and deeply relatable. It’s not just that Casey is afraid of being noticed; he’s afraid of being remembered for the wrong thing. That kind of dread, more than any monster, is what makes this book feel so true to its age group.

As the days pass, Morel begins to appear more lifelike—he mimics Casey in subtle ways, gradually speaking, even adopting elements of Casey’s personality. Meanwhile, Casey feels himself fading into the background of his own life. His parents grow distracted and distant. He begins to question his memories, his emotions, and even his own reality. The horror in Another isn’t fueled by monsters or ghosts but by the slow and quiet fear of being replaced, forgotten, or erased.

One of the book’s most effective choices is its slower pacing in the first third. Rather than rushing into the central horror, Tremblay allows readers to linger with Casey. We sit in his unease, his awkward silences, and his loneliness. We see the contours of his inner world—his routines, his tics, his desperate hope that someone might actually hear him. This emotional groundwork makes the events that follow feel far more devastating. When the uncanny begins to creep in, we’re not just watching something strange happen—we’re watching something happen to someone we know. That time spent building connection with Casey is what gives the story its weight and makes the psychological horror hit so deeply.

Tremblay’s style is understated but effective. Rather than relying on jump scares or flashy set pieces, he leans into atmosphere, psychological tension, and emotional dissonance. The writing captures the confusion of a child experiencing gaslighting and displacement without overwhelming the reader with complexity. Even the most supernatural elements are grounded in Casey’s emotional experience, blurring the line between what is literally happening and what might be metaphorical or imagined.

One of the book’s most haunting elements is its ambiguity. Who—or what—is Morel, exactly? Is he magical, cursed, an embodiment of some fungal parasite, or something else entirely? Tremblay never spells it out, which is part of what makes the book so unsettling. The unknown isn’t explained away; it’s allowed to fester. This restraint invites readers—especially middle-grade ones—to sit with discomfort and come to their own conclusions, which is rare and refreshing in a genre that often over-explains.

While Another is written for younger readers, it does not condescend. The prose is clear but intelligent, and the themes are complex without being overwhelming. Casey’s struggle with anxiety is presented with compassion and realism. His isolation, the way adults overlook his fears, and the pressure to “get over it” will resonate with many children—and, perhaps more profoundly, with adults who remember what it felt like to be unheard or misunderstood.

It’s also worth noting that the book’s resistance to providing easy answers or neat resolutions is one of its most admirable traits. The horror lingers beyond the final page, not because of what’s shown, but because of what’s left unsaid. In that way, Another respects its readers immensely, trusting them to handle ambiguity and emotional nuance without spoon-feeding.

As a pandemic-era novel, Another also captures a very specific kind of loneliness. The anxiety, the uncertainty, the disconnection—all of it lingers under the surface. But Tremblay doesn’t exploit the pandemic as a gimmick. Instead, it becomes a backdrop that enhances the emotional realism of Casey’s journey. For children who lived through those strange, fragmented school years, the book may feel eerily familiar in its portrayal of confusion, fear, and the desire to be seen.

Ultimately, Another succeeds not just as a horror novel, but as a portrait of a young boy fighting to hold on to his identity in the face of a quiet, creeping threat. It's a story about being replaced, about losing your reflection in the mirror and wondering if anyone notices—or cares. It is deeply unsettling, not because of what it shows, but because of what it suggests: that the most terrifying monsters aren’t always outside us. Sometimes, they slip into our lives unnoticed, wearing our faces, and smiling like they belong.

Paul Tremblay has created something unique with Another: a horror novel for kids that takes their fears seriously. It doesn’t wrap things up neatly, but instead trusts readers to sit with ambiguity and tension. For kids who enjoy eerie, character-driven stories with emotional resonance—and for adults curious to see what psychological horror looks like in a middle-grade frame—Another is a compelling, memorable experience.

A spooky story perfect for middle grade readers and adults alike. I enjoyed the concept of stolen identity but done from a child’s perspective. I felt the whole creepy friend taking over the main character’s identity was definitely fear inducing. I could only imagine the impact it would have on a younger reader. I felt sympathy for the friendship between the two characters and I was happy with the ending because it gave our “creature” a redemption arc. Excellent, fun read.

Thank you Netgalley & Quill Tree Books for an eARC ♥️

“Another” by Paul Tremblay took me on a trip—not just into its eerie, unsettling story, but straight back to my childhood. Remember those summer nights when the house was quiet, everyone else was asleep, and you were curled under a blanket with a flashlight, devouring a scary book? That’s exactly how this book made me feel. The kind of story that wraps around you like a shadow, making every creak in the house sound a little louder.
Casey’s strange new friend,Morel, is the stuff of nightmares—silent, clay-skinned, and wrong in ways that slowly unravel Casey’s world. The way Tremblay builds tension is masterful, making you question every glance, every odd behavior from Casey’s suddenly distant parents. Is Morel supernatural? A figment of Casey’s anxiety? Or something even worse?
What really got me was how perfectly this book captured that childhood fear of being unseen in your own home—when the people who are supposed to love you most start treating you like a stranger. The unease builds like a storm, and by the time you realize just how deep the horror goes, it’s too late to look away.
A perfect mix of nostalgia and chills. Tremblay proves he can haunt kids just as effectively as adults. 👻✨

Maybe Paul Tremblay isn't the author for me, idk. This is only the second book of his I'm drawn to and have read, and the experience was the same as with the first one (A Head Full of Ghosts): I thought it was a good premise and a super creepy idea, but the execution fell flat to me. It has nothing to do with this being middle grade; I think the concept works really well for its audience, but something about the writing and characterization didn't work for me. These characters all felt lifeless to me, so I had a hard time engaging on any kind of level. It's just a book I read, and it was fine.

2.5 stars.

What a fantastic book. It is so unnerving and intrusive. ANOTHER gets under your skin and implants itself into your head.
Twelve year old Casey has anxiety that manifests in multiple tics causing him to have a hard time making and keeping friends. During spring school vacation, a man brings Casey a friend to play with, but it’s not a normal human.
“Morel brought his hands to his mouth, or the area where his mouth was supposed to be. His fingers pressed and pulled at his lip ridges, molding his clay into a smile. He nodded his smiling head and gave a thumbs-up.”
I was constantly thinking about Casey and Morel and needed to find out what was going to happen. Truly a story that left me feeling unsettled. .
Yes the main characters are twelve year old boys but I found this story to be Tremblay’s best work and most frightening to date. It is unlike any of his previous novels. If you think you are going to be reading a YA book, you need to get that out of your head right now.

Part of the story that I personally loved was the aspects of Casey talking about when he went to the doctors to have his neuro testing. It brought me back to when my son went through similar testing and either Mr. Tremblay went through this before or it was very well researched. It gave me hope for Casey