Your Worst Nightmare!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ In this Halloween blog, I’m going to review a thrilling novel by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller called “Nightmares!”. I first came across this spooky title when my parents rented it from a local library as an audiobook to listen to on a road trip. I loved listening to the story so much that I was overjoyed to find a paperback version of this book at a store so that I could finally read it! I think that this remarkable tale would best suit young adults who have a great interest in mysterious fantasy.
In the book, the main character, named Charlie Laird, hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in months, or at least since he moved into a terrifying mansion that always sent chills up his spine even before he lived there. Every time he went to sleep, in a very realistic dream, he would be taken and tied up by a terrifying witch and her oversized cat. On top of that, when he was awake, he would hear creaking footsteps in the hall just outside his room that didn’t belong to anyone he knew. Charlie was almost completely convinced that all of this was just his imagination running wild, until one night when he heard the footsteps again before he went to sleep. However, this time, the footsteps didn’t just walk down the hall as usual, but instead went into Charlie’s little brother’s room! When Charlie heard the footsteps retreating, he quickly and quietly followed the steps through his large house to the highest tower. When he finally came to the top room in the tower, he was shocked to see one of the walls was missing and looked like a dark forest! As Charlie into the trees, he saw his little brother slung over someone’s back in an alternate reality. Charlie jumped through the magical wall, not knowing that all of his nightmares were about to come true because this is where all nightmares are born…
I would give the book “Nightmares!” five out of five stars because I think that the author and well know actor, Jason Segel, was in a very artistic mood when he thought of this because the story’s plotline is very creative and out of the box. Another thing I liked about this story were the details about the Netherworld and the monsters living there. Those details made every creature seem very different from one another, and all the creepier. I also liked how the plot went into the different nightmares Charlie’s friends had. I think that it really helped show what any kid struggles with and what might terrifies them the most. One last thing that I like about this fantastic novel you can apply the saying “You can’t judge a book (or in this case, a creature) by its cover”. The author made some of the scariest monsters in the book exceedingly kind, and vice versa which kept me on the edge of my seat.
If your interested in this book or would like to play a fun game base the novel, check out the Nightmares! Website from Random House. Please write in the comments what nightmare you had when you were a child and how you overcame it.
