It begins with a game among a group of middle school friends—a deadly game that sets off a series of events that haunts them from beyond the natural world. What have they unleashed, and how will they stop this evil from spreading? Supernatural thrills and chills multiply in Remy Lai’s (Ghost Book) Read at Your Own Risk, an eerie tale fraught with uncanny occurrences that spell trouble and impending doom.
Seventh grader Hannah spends her time journaling in her diary, recording all her private affairs including the fateful day when things turned weird after playing a game called Spirit of the Coin: what started out as an Ouija-like game to communicate with the dead quickly turns into a spook-filled mystery in R.L. Stine fashion. While walking home one day, an unseen force pushes Hannah from behind, yanks her by the wrists, and shoves her to the ground. During science class, a freak accident occurs in the middle of a lesson on dissecting an earthworm, resulting in a scalpel flying across the room, nicking her forehead that required two stitches. Later in the restroom, she spots a centipede wiggling around inside her face and squirming into her gums—or was that her paranoid, overactive imagination running wild? But then a spirit begins to speak with her directly, scrawling increasingly threatening messages in the pages of her diary. The stakes rise when the spirit starts to target her brother by controlling him like a puppet. Hannah must find a way to break this curse gone berserk, but how can she fight something she can’t even see?
Haunting tension create a sinister Goosebumps vibe in this graphic novel through zany black and white doodles and gothic stylized characters reminiscent of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. As the plot unravels, the motives behind the malicious spirit don’t quite hit the mark, leaving room for questions and perhaps even a sequel for further exploration. Various characters—from Hannah’s classmates and teachers—pop in and out of the story, but ultimately Hannah takes the lead in moving the plot forward.
Fueled by its angst-ridden narrative voice, Lai’s story cranks up the suspense in steady bursts that explode onto double-page spreads as Hannah struggles to make sense of what’s happening while attempting to shake off the predatory entity. The storytelling style, orchestrated in sporadic journal entries paired with doodling sketches in the vein of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, makes this a fast read for reluctant readers of supernatural fiction wrapped in mystery, yet ends rather abruptly with a lingering, curious twist.
Read at Your Own Risk
By Remy Lai
Henry Holt, 2024
ISBN: 9781250323354
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11)
Creator Representation: Australian, Indonesian
