Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton

Posted April 21, 2015 by Spetzi in Book Reviews, Childrens / 0 Comments

Grey dining chars of various design are arranged in a jumbled grid on a black background(This YA review was written by Spetzi, 11)

The book “13 chairs” by Dave Shelton was an almost perfect book that had only a few exceptions to the “perfect” title. This book sends you down a rabbit hole full of adventure and mystery from ghost stories that I guarantee you have never heard. My only problem was the fact that one character was without proper grammar, making his ghost story difficult to understand when reading.

In this book, Jack ventures into a old mansion that is said to be filled with ghosts on one night each year. Curious and unable to name the source of this rumor, Jack finds himself sitting in a room filled with 12 other ghosts telling tales of death.

While Jack tries to spin his own tale of doom, he is shaken up on the worst levels by the stories he is filled with images from. The gripping ghost tales from this book include such things as: a story of the brave woodcutter and his fearful death from the haunted forest, and the man who stopped his heart from the patterns of toning from a clock. This book will make sure you know what story you will tell when your friends want to spook you, and it WILL backfire on the person who had the idea to start the game of stories!

(Note: I think Spetzi has encountered a character written in a dialect. This book is being marketed a little higher than I think it reads. I’d place this similar to the Goosebumps series, or perhaps just above. No real horror here, more is implied than occurs on the page.)

four-stars