Keep in a Cold, Dark Place
Michael F. Stewart
Publication date: May 18th 2017
Genres: Horror, Middle-Grade
My Review
I can’t resist a good horror tale, and I very much enjoy ones spun for kids. I sure wish there had been more like this when I was young. But, you’re never too old to enjoy a gem like this.
Being a sweet, kind-hearted lass, Limpy doesn’t know any better when she places the box of eggs she discovered in the sun to warm. When one of the eggs hatches and out pops a cute little critter, she’s overjoyed. But then another egg hatches, and another. And what started as a kind act turns into horror.
Picturing what hatches from one of the eggs, I immediately thought of an evil Tribble or, if you’ve seen Critters, one of those rolling furry things with the sharp pointy teeth. But that’s just when it and it’s litter mates first get started. They eat. They grow. They change. And they are always hungry, always eating. And they don’t discriminate. From produce to living things, such as, perhaps, a cat, it all looks good to them. What could be next? Maybe a human child? Or an adult? That’s more food.
I ate this story up faster than you can say Keep In A Cold Dark Place. There’s a sense of foreboding right from the start. Limpy is a delightful and resourceful young girl. The creatures are cute, then not so cute. And the writing flows nicely, the author keeping the atmosphere building and the tension high.
A scary good story for young lovers of horror and us older fans of things that go bump in the night.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
Reaching for her dream, Limpy unleashes a cute, fluffy, NIGHTMARE …
Keep in a cold, dark place. That’s what’s written like some ancient law on every bag of potatoes the family farms. And it’s where Limpy fears she will always remain.
It’s also carved on a box of spheres she discovers in the cellar. Spheres that hatch.
Cute at first, the creatures begin to grow. Then the chickens disappear. The cat is hunted. And something sets the barn ablaze. To survive, Limpy will need to face her greatest fear. The whole family will. Or they may end up in a cold, dark place indeed.
Author Michael F. Stewart
Michael F. Stewart is winner of both the 2015 Claymore Award and the 2014 inaugural Creation of Stories Award for best YA novel at the Toronto International Book Fair.
He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia, and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. In addition to his award winning Assured Destruction series, he has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights are published by Scholastic and early readers are out with Pearson Education.
For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS–a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.
Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s first Writer in Residence. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.
Michael is represented by Talcott Notch.
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