The House with a Clock in its Walls

Review: The House with a Clock in its Walls
by Matthew Wilcox at the Wilcox Foxtrot

It’s pretty standard stuff, but Bellairs’s calm tone throughout makes the work feel that much creepier and eerier. There are car chases and magic fights and witches and cemetery visits and the raising of the dead, all dashed with a funny bone with a penchant for chocolate chip cookies, but none of it feels like it’s overtaking the other. In the end, the dire situation seems to be relegated to this single house, and I didn’t feel like the whole world was in danger — only Lewis. Which in the grand scheme of things is exactly what probably works better anyway.

Gorey’s illustrations aren’t as macabre as some of his other work, but they wonderful set the mood; it’s always a little treat when you turn the page get a picture.

The Figure in the Shadows

Review: The Figure in the Shadows
by Jessy Randall

Bellairs's work sits squarely in terror. For most of The Figure in the Shadows we only know that something scary is on the way. The scary thing only appears in the final chapters; even then it's barely seen. On page 78, Lewis Barnavelt receives a scary postcard that says, in Latin, Venio ("I come"). Such a postcard -- a POSTCARD -- should not be so scary. But it is VERY SCARY. The next scary thing, an old newspaper blowing around in the wind -- A VERY SCARY NEWSPAPER -- appears on page 119. My daughter and I were TERRIFIED.

The House with a Clock in its Walls

Review: The House With a Clock in Its Walls
by Anastasia at BirdBrain(ed)

The Lewis Barnavelt series is my favorite of John Bellairs’ books, mostly because of the characters. Lewis, his uncle, and their friends are such kind people that they keep the book(s) from getting overly gloomy, which is great because I don’t like too much gloom in my gothic literature. JB can also pack a ton of character depth into a small amount of space– his sentences tend to be short and stark, too, but still very layered and interesting.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls
by Jessy Randall

Recently I brought home The House with a Clock in Its Walls, a book I remembered only very vaguely from my own childhood. The paperback edition I got is billed as "A John Bellairs mystery featuring Lewis Barnavelt." What I remembered: it is spooky and distinctive. What I learned, reading it to my daughter at bedtime: it is definitely both of those things, with illustrations by Edward Gorey (love!) and a gothic spirit you don't usually see in children's books. This is no Goosebumps, with gross-outs (not that I'm against those). It is truly scary, and the magic in it seems very real.

Fuzzy memories of Bellairs & Gorey

Remembering the works of John Bellairs
from Tag&Station

"...well before my unhealthy addiction to contemporary horror I was drawn to the quaint, spooky and very british mysteries of John Bellairs. His stories were kind of a gothic variation of Hardy Boys and featured cryptic, odd illustrations that have only recently resurfaced in my memories, prompting the realisation that they were the creations of famed illustrator Edward Gorey."

The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn

The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn
from Guys Lit Wire

I really liked this story. I polished it off in an afternoon, and it put me in the mood for both the books I loved as a kid, like Encyclopedia Brown and The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and sent me scurrying to the library to more Bellairs books. Unfortunately, our library doesn't have the next book in the series, so I've picked up The House with the Clock in its Walls. Not all the books have the delightful Gorey illustrations, but my copy of Alpheus Winterborn has great illustrations nonetheless. I particularly like the sinister portrait of Winterborn at the beginning of the book.