Abandoned by Booklikes

Well I read this one and only realized now that it counts towards The Dead Writers Society October 2016 Genre challenge. So that's one less thing to worry about before the end of the month. I am also going to be reading this for the Horror Aficionados Fall Fear Challenge.

I read this as a kid and remember being haunted for a couple of days after finishing. The imagery, the illustrations, everything about the book scared me to (almost) death. I lived at the time in an old steel mill town and all of the homes had some quirky aspects to them. We had Victorian style homes as well as hundred year old houses with random towers and odd shaped roofs. So for me, I was able to picture the town of New Zebedee, Michigan because it felt very similar to my own.

Now as an adult I was hoping to feel those same thrills and chills. Instead I felt mostly annoyance for Lewis who kept doing things in order to keep a friend and who seemed to be almost always crying. His personality does a miraculous change in the end, and we have a random new character introduced who we had heard nothing about before. I know that there are a bunch more books in this series. According to Goodreads there are 12 books. However, I don't know if I would want to continue on since the rest of the books may taint my memory further of this book.

"The House With the Clock in Its Walls" has the main character moving to Zebedee to live with his Uncle Johnathon after his parents died in a car accident. Being met by a giant of a man with red hair all over, Lewis is initially afraid, but is soon enchanted with the home that his uncle lives in. His uncle's best friend and general pain in the butt friend Mrs. Zimmerman lives next door and has the run of the home.

Though Lewis is fascinated by the home, he realizes early on that something weird is going on with his uncle getting up in the middle of the night and looking for something. And pretty soon Lewis due to him trying to impress his friend Tarby puts everyone in danger when he plays with something he does not have any real knowledge of at all.

Lewis is described as overweight and loves to read. You get to see illustrations of him in the book and he is depicted as roundish with his head always pointing to the ground it seemed to me. Lewis doesn't have a lot of self confidence and it seems that when things don't go his way (which is often) he runs away in tears. Things seem to be better when he meets a boy named Tarby who is the most popular boy at his school, who teaches Lewis how to play baseball. However, when Lewis feels Tarby pulling away he does what he can to get him to still be his friend.

Uncle Jonathon seemed clueless about things that Lewis was doing and how he was doing at school. I wanted more interaction with him and Lewis. Heck Mrs. Zimmerman had more sense about what was going on and I wish she had a conversation with Lewis. It would have been great if Lewis had learned earlier on that you can't keep someone in a friendship they are not feeling.

The writing was good, though I can see as a kid why the book scared the crap out of me. Bellairs is quite good at making you feel jumpy while you are reading. There are several points in the book you will hold your breath and be scared to death. The illustrations help with that too.

I think the flow wasn't very good though. It seemed like the book went almost through an entire year. And we really only focused on the summer months and then October and November. There is a significant event that takes place right on Halloween, so those who need to read this book for some bingo squares, it fills quite a few.

The ending was a bit of a letdown. I wanted more an epic battle I guess. And then to have the book kind of just go to Lewis being fine about things because hey he met another friend was a bit funny to me.