Hardcover, 288 pages
Published July 20, 2021 by Quill Tree Books.
Fink's usual strange, playful prose works well in this young readers novel. Some time loop and pacing missteps in the middle might put off the target audience for this books, but there are enough weird delights to make it worth experiencing it all.
A tight, well-paced scary story about a girl who becomes trapped in an eternal night of Halloween. Esther Gold loves Halloween, and when her parents forbid her from trick-or-treating on grounds that at 13, she is now too old, she convinces her best friend Augustín to sneak out with her. All is not as they expect, however, as all the adults in town seems to have fallen asleep and the children are missing. Esther and Augustín team up with Sasha, Esther's nemesis, and Mr. Gabler, her seemingly boring next-door neighbor, to try to defeat the Queen of Halloween, who has stopped time in the town so she and her terrifying minions can enjoy the height of her power, Halloween night, forever. At once an unsettling and action-packed horror story and a heartfelt tale of accepting the realities of changing and growing older, this scary story full of high stakes and …
A tight, well-paced scary story about a girl who becomes trapped in an eternal night of Halloween. Esther Gold loves Halloween, and when her parents forbid her from trick-or-treating on grounds that at 13, she is now too old, she convinces her best friend Augustín to sneak out with her. All is not as they expect, however, as all the adults in town seems to have fallen asleep and the children are missing. Esther and Augustín team up with Sasha, Esther's nemesis, and Mr. Gabler, her seemingly boring next-door neighbor, to try to defeat the Queen of Halloween, who has stopped time in the town so she and her terrifying minions can enjoy the height of her power, Halloween night, forever. At once an unsettling and action-packed horror story and a heartfelt tale of accepting the realities of changing and growing older, this scary story full of high stakes and beautiful language offers both chills and insight into the human condition.
