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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Most disturbing book for middle grades that i've ever read
Creepy, fantastical and filled with heartbreak and hope in equal measure, The Nest will set your skin crawling and cause your breath to catch.
Steve’s family has a newborn baby, Theo, who is in and out of the hospitals and doctors’ offices. Theo has a variety of life-threatening developmental disabilities, including heart trouble, and may not survive. Steve’s family has their hands full as he suffers from anxiety, depression, and what is suggested to be OCD. With the added stress of this sick baby, Steve’s issues are put on the side burner. At the same time, outside of the house, wasps are building a nest. Steve suffers from terrifying dreams that the wasps are building a new baby for his family within this nest. After saying yes to a deal with the queen wasp to swap babies, Steve realizes that he loves his baby just the way he is. Unfortunately, he made a deal with the devil and must now try to save himself and Theo. The Nest is an incredibly disturbing and terrifying juvenile Stephen King-like thriller/horror story for fifth graders and up. Although the vocabulary, structure, pictures, and length are not worthy of crossing the title into young adult status, the concept is definitely more for the middle grades. The wasps plan on eating the broken baby. Not to include huge spoilers, at one point, the queen tells Steve he is dead. There is a sawing off a head scene, a knife man, and at the end, a baby fingernail is found in a shell of a wasp nest. The story is just gruesome and nightmarish. Klassen illustrates with inky black pictures--the eeriness reminiscent of Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series (for YA). Steve’s mental illness is also a more YA-appropriate topic as he is in constant fear of being pumped up with medicine and locked in a psych ward. I would struggle to recommend this title to elementary school-aged kids, and I cannot decide if it is brilliant or just insane.
This was pretty okay. I liked how I still needed to wonder in the end. What had happened, why it happened, what those things were. It was creepy enough too. If I had read this when I was in middle school, it definitely would've stuck with me.
Creepy. A horror story for middle grades. I appreciate the ethics, that all life has dignity and is worth preserving, but . . . creepy.
Read with Isaac for school assignment. We both enjoyed it!
Wildly and brilliantly creepy! Totally makes your skin crawl. But don't worry, it makes you okay with being the imperfect human that you are. I felt that Steve was portrayed quite well! But oof. Do not read this if you don't like bugs!
This would also make an excellent movie like Coraline!
This would also make an excellent movie like Coraline!
Sebuah cerita yang "aneh" - agak spooky - dan unik sih.
It was a doozy of a Friday, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed with a good book and forget the day's troubles. Spying the spooky cover, my middle son grabbled the book from my hand commenting on how "thin the book jacket was." Oh, the better to creep you out, my dearies.
The Nest is intended for middle grade readers, but honestly, it creeped me out from the beginning. I am positive that nightmares might await my poor students if they are brave enough to crack its pages. A cross between Coraline and The Night Gardener, The Nest also reminds me of A Monster Calls. Grief, fear, abandonment, and a child's imperfections are all skillfully woven into the story to make you understand why Steven decides to make a pact with the devil, er, Queen Bee. Ultimately, though, Steve realizes his error in judgement and saves the day. No spooky story would be complete without a person no one else seems to see and a phone no one else seems to hear...I know this book intended for ages ten and up is sure to scare the pants off my students.
The choice of illustrators is an odd one, and a choice that has been commented on numerous reviews. I won't belabor the point, but here are a few of my thoughts...Jon Klassen, of I Want My Hat Back fame, has done a miraculous job of subduing the scariness of the words through his art. I agree with one reviewer that his depiction of Steve's house in the beginning of the book vs. his home at the end is truly genius. That, and the art makes me think of A Monster Calls again. There. No more belaboring. Brilliant pairing.
While I relish a good spooky story as much as the next person, I saw so much more within the pages. Perhaps because like Steve's parents, I know all too well the sheer fear that huddles in the depths of your throat, choking you and reminding you that your most precious thing in the world-your newborn-is a medical enigma. The overwhelming sense of confusion and dizzying madness that you suddenly find yourself immersed in is frightening. Futile punches in the dark, you no longer own your life. You are no longer in control, though you are the leaders of your family and must make a billion decisions not only about your medically-fragile child but about your other brood, too. It is a terror that thankfully not as many parents feel as statistically could in our day and time; but it is a fear that I recognize within the pages of The Nest. I wonder how Kenneth Oppel got those intangible emotions so spot on. I only hope he has not lived them himself.
Highly recommended. Wow.
The Nest is intended for middle grade readers, but honestly, it creeped me out from the beginning. I am positive that nightmares might await my poor students if they are brave enough to crack its pages. A cross between Coraline and The Night Gardener, The Nest also reminds me of A Monster Calls. Grief, fear, abandonment, and a child's imperfections are all skillfully woven into the story to make you understand why Steven decides to make a pact with the devil, er, Queen Bee. Ultimately, though, Steve realizes his error in judgement and saves the day. No spooky story would be complete without a person no one else seems to see and a phone no one else seems to hear...I know this book intended for ages ten and up is sure to scare the pants off my students.
The choice of illustrators is an odd one, and a choice that has been commented on numerous reviews. I won't belabor the point, but here are a few of my thoughts...Jon Klassen, of I Want My Hat Back fame, has done a miraculous job of subduing the scariness of the words through his art. I agree with one reviewer that his depiction of Steve's house in the beginning of the book vs. his home at the end is truly genius. That, and the art makes me think of A Monster Calls again. There. No more belaboring. Brilliant pairing.
While I relish a good spooky story as much as the next person, I saw so much more within the pages. Perhaps because like Steve's parents, I know all too well the sheer fear that huddles in the depths of your throat, choking you and reminding you that your most precious thing in the world-your newborn-is a medical enigma. The overwhelming sense of confusion and dizzying madness that you suddenly find yourself immersed in is frightening. Futile punches in the dark, you no longer own your life. You are no longer in control, though you are the leaders of your family and must make a billion decisions not only about your medically-fragile child but about your other brood, too. It is a terror that thankfully not as many parents feel as statistically could in our day and time; but it is a fear that I recognize within the pages of The Nest. I wonder how Kenneth Oppel got those intangible emotions so spot on. I only hope he has not lived them himself.
Highly recommended. Wow.
Trippy. Creepy. Confusing. I’m a fan. But I don’t know why.