It Watches in the Dark, shines as age-appropriate horror for ages 10 and up

This book runs, and very few books run. Books that run have that page-turner characteristic that literally makes it challenging to put down. For our money, any form of entertainment can run, and each instance is equally rare. It Watches in the Dark runs. It’s horror mglit that is age-appropriate for upper-elementary audiences, but has the smarts, tension and character development to make it interesting and enjoyable to those middle school students and older. Even the book’s cover reels in possible readers. For example, our eighth-grade student saw It Watches in the Dark by our bed and said “ooooh, when did you start reading that?”

It’s a great indicator that the book wants to be read when that is said. When that happens, the book is doing everything correct, and laying seeds of interest like a middle school kid inadvertently dropping Ohio Rizz. There’s a head with sinewy strands down its face stretching over the maw it uses for a mouth. The eyes have a solid appearance but are still obscured by the fabric that makes up its face. Its exterior is on fire and the entire upper torso towers over two youth, roughly four times as large as them. There’s an unspoken acknowledgment that this beast is the “It” that’s referenced in the book’s title and you’re just hoping that it’s as much fun to read about as it is to daydream whilst looking at the cover.

It Watches in the Dark is an easy read. By that, I mean that the words flow off of the pages and are written in a manner that is descriptive, but not too much. There’s no word salad or contemporaneous ramblings from characters that don’t add up to something. The book quickly establishes the setting, its spooky mood and then digs deeper into the paranoid actions of the second-tier characters, as well as, how the book’s main characters are dealing with it all.

Trishia and Oliver are twins who are out on a canoe trip with their dad, who gets severely injured early on in the story. The three are deep in the woods, but because of his injuries, the two youth have to beach their canoe and search for help. After a longer-than-desired walk the two find a small village and a seemingly kind old man who offers to help them. The twins notice the totem-like scarecrow in the middle of the village, find its population sign stain 999 residents a bit odd, but are more interested in getting their dad the medical attention he needs.

There is a hospital in town that can assist him, but everyone they encounter is just a bit off. They’re too concerned with what the scarecrow thinks, are praising it for various reasons, and are never seen out of their homes after dark. It’s a setup that you think you’re seen before and it seems familiar, but in It Watches from the Dark it’s presented in a manner that’s boiled down and compressed by time.

This is one of the few books in recent memory that I’ve read that happens in real-time. The book’s 219 pages take place over a two-day period in the spooky, cult village that these two kids have stumbled into. There is no opportunity to take a break. There’s no “In the next morning…..” or other devices that authors might use to soft pedal segue through a period of time. It’s constant tension and even though the book may strain credibility for older readers or those not interested in the horror genre, the payoff is immediate. It’s that desire to not put the book down because you’re having so much fun reading it.

You know that the book will be there later, but you want to read it now. Regardless of when you pick up the book again, the ending will be the same, but you want to read it now. How long has it been since you’ve read a book that gave you that sensation? It happens very rarely for upper-elementary and mglit readers, so take advantage of it. There’s also something about horror books that makes acceptable for older, high school students to read a book that might otherwise be classified as too basic for them. These instances are where you want to pick your battles and if the kid wants to read, but only wants to read horror that’s ok.

When I was a youth that’s predominately what I read. Your child or student may only want to read manga. That kid who is your child’s friend only reads graphic novels or comic books. They are still reading and engaging their mind on a level that is leagues higher than TikTok, so take the win. It Watches is the Dark is a smartly written horror book that will take you by surprise if you don’t like the genre and exceed your expectations if age-appropriate horror is already your jam.

It Watches in the Dark is by Jeff Strand and is available on Sourcebooks Young Readers, an imprint of Sourcebooks.

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