Tuesday, July 16, 2019

The Saturday Night Ghost Club - Book Review


I got a complimentary copy of The Saturday Night Ghost Club from Penguin. Thanks!


Jake Baker is an awkward twelve year old with no friends and too many bullies. He spends most of his free time with his Uncle C who owns a novelty shop specializing in the occult in the 1980's town of Niagra Falls. That summer Jake will befriend the new kids to town and even though he suspects they will become his tormentors as soon as school starts, he enjoys welcoming the siblings into his Saturday Night Ghost Club.

Craig Davidson is an amazing storyteller. The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a fun and emotional coming-of-age story that was simultaneously thrilling and thought provoking. Set in an era, when kids still roamed the streets on bicycles and came home only for dinner, the book allows the young characters to be vulnerable and adventurous with freedom to roam. It was a great read to quell the hole after I finished watching Stranger Things 3.

The novel is short but so packed with skilled storytelling. And while it sets up as many coming-of-age stories, Jake, Billy and Dove are unique characters richly developed and bursting with adolescence and the coming adulthood. The Saturday Night Ghost Club wraps up in ways I didn't expect but left me marveling and changed.

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson is published by Penguin and released July 9, 2019.


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