This book was genuinely scary - it felt like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone with an Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Changeling element. I figured out the twist pretty early on but it was fun getting to the reveal and I think it might keep your library kids guessing. The mysterious man was terrifying to me. It was a great metaphor for the pandemic (how easily and quickly things spread) and the anxiety about forces larger than oneself mixed the feeling of loss of autonomy and sense of estrangement from family. It also has disability rep with the severity of Casey's anxiety and his tics. Ramon de Ocampo was excellent as always as the narrator of this audiobook. Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books: Quill Tree Books, and Net Galley for letting me read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great kids horror book with a really unique premise. But unless I missed it, I'm still left wondering the WHY and HOW of it all...

When twelve-year-old Casey is told a friend is coming for a sleepover, he’s shocked—he doesn’t have any friends, especially after the infamous “Zoom Incident.” But then Morel shows up: a silent, strange boy with clay-like skin. While Casey grows more disturbed, his parents seem entranced. The longer Morel stays, the more reality begins to shift… and Casey isn’t sure what’s real anymore.

Another is deliciously eerie and unsettling in the best way. Tremblay’s first middle grade novel delivers R.L. Stine-meets-Coraline vibes, with creeping dread and psychological twists that don’t cross the line into too-scary-for-kids territory. With body-snatcher energy, intense atmosphere, and an unreliable reality, this one lingers long after the final page. It’s an absolute must-have for middle school libraries and horror-loving tweens.

What would you do if a strange not-quite-a-real-boy boy comes to sleep over and slowly starts to look like you? What if your parents don't seem to notice and start to think that boy is YOU? This is Casey Wilson's story about it.

I think unsettling horror is the perfect kind to introduce middle grade readers to horror. While there are some bits that could be considered gross, this is mostly a vibes type of horror story. There aren't jump scares, there is no murderer with a chainsaw running around, but there is a quiet infiltration of evil intentions happening in a single home that wouldn't draw the attention of the neighbors. And that can be just as terrifying as any other type of horror novel.

As addressed in the author's note at the end, setting this in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic provides the perfect backdrop for this type of story to take place. While this isn't a cased closed type of ending, Tremblay does give readers enough clues as to "what happens after" to know how things are resolved. They just may never look at dust, pollen, or mushrooms in the same way ever again.

Ramon de Ocampo does a great job with the audiobook narration.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, HarperAudio Children’s, Quill Tree Books in exchange for an honest review.