7/23/23

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Very grateful to Tonja Decker and her wonderful kidlit blog Bookwormforkids.com for the glowing review of Thomas Creeper and the Purple Corpse. Tonja spotlights fresh and upcoming books from early reader picture books up through YA. Check out the blog for great recs for the young reader in your household. Here's what Tonja has to say about Thomas Creeper's second adventure. Or read the review straight from the source here.

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Delightfully dark twists with clever humor in a tale, which invites to dig deeper with every page.

 

Thomas lives in Gloomsbury, Massachusetts, which is as cursed as its name suggests. But then, he does spend his life at his parents' funeral home helping out, homeschooling, or just living...unlike the corpses around him. Or the ghosts. As a detective for the dead, Thomas has more than his fill of those and would, sometimes, like nothing more than to be normal. Or go out on a date. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a deadly mystery as purple inked corpses wash up on shore, and only he has a chance of finding the cause.

 

This was an exciting dive into a world packed with imaginative details and, yet, sticking close enough to real life to make it wonderfully haunting. The author masterfully creates a town, where all sorts of horrors and gloom wait in the shadows, but even as death and danger hang in the air, humor pokes in its head with perfect snorts and snark. Imaginative details punctuate at the right times to draw in, while the characters and their quirks add needed depth. It's well-crafted and a treat for goth fans, who enjoy a heavy dose of humor to keep things lively and unexpected.

 

The mystery tangles right in between all of this and promises more than a few unexpected turns. Thomas makes a detective to root for as he sinks into his role, while dealing with several usual problems this age group tends to face. It's a read to get lost in and one, where it's hard to guess what will happen next.