Customer Reviews

Fiendish Deeds (Joy of Spooking (Hardback))

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just as I suspected it would, The Joy of Spooking: Fiendish Deeds has earned a place on my list of all time favorites. I love the concept, I love the characters and the storyline is engaging and relevant. But most of all I love P.J.'s writing - it's my exact kind of slightly dark humor and is full of gems like Joy's brother Byron's thoughts when the two meet a filthy but surprisingly friendly old "witch" woman at the bog:

"Byron continued to stare at her suspiciously. He'd read the fairy tales, and such chumminess usually meant a kid-size oven was preheating somewhere nearby."

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Joy, Byron and their parents live in Spooking - "the terrible town on the hideous hill." They don't exactly fit in with the cookie-cutter residents of Darlington, the sprawling neighbor city where they have to attend school. Joy's hobby is researching the legend of the bog fiend and the horror writer E.A. Peugeot and she'd really rather have nothing to do with Darlington at all. She does venture there to accompany Byron to a couple of parties (the precocious 8 year old has a crush on a darling of Darlington), and she is forced to confront some of its citizens in her quest to prevent a water park from being built over her beloved bog.

This is a story about preserving diversity - both in nature and in society. But it is far from being preachy - it is fun and exciting with a liberal portion of spookiness. The villain, major assistant Mr. Phipps, is exactly the kind of well-rounded, conflicted fiendish deed doer that makes a juicy character - we get the sense that he was once quite like Joy before something went terribly wrong. I eagerly await the next two books in the planned trilogy to find out more about Mr. Phipps' background and follow Joy and Byron's further adventures.

Highly recommended to all readers 8 and up.

The minute I saw the creepy, Tim Burton-reminiscent cover, I desperately wanted to read this book, and reading the first chapter only made it more appealing. Bracegirdle (an unlikely name if I ever heard one) can write very, very well, and he has an imagination that just won't quit. Chapter one opens with an Edgar Allen Poe quote, and it's clear that Bracegirdle is channeling classic horror writers (he references Poe, but Lovecraft also jumps to mind). Joy Wells lives in Spooking, the "hideous hill" surrounded by the newer, suburban, cookie-cutter town of Darlington. The Darlings, as they call themselves, fear Spooking and mock the kids who come down for school at Winsome Elementary. Joy, a devoted horror fan, loves Spooking and has nothing but scorn for the neat, boring lives of the Darling kids who torment her at school. She becomes convinced that her favorite horror writer, E. A. Peugeot, set his stories in and around Spooking, and decides that the Bog Monster in her favorite story must be real. Meanwhile, plans to drain the bog and replace it with a water park are afoot.

The brilliance of this story is in sharp, accurate prose (often infused with delightfully dry wit) and a masterful sense of creepiness (I actually got shivers at the very end). The characters are classic, but complex. Joy's attitude about Spooking is balanced by Bracegirdle's descriptions of the town's decrepitude, and by one Darling child who is shockingly nice to her. Phipps, the villain, is one of the best horror villains in kids' literature. Parallels to Joy's attitude and situation make it apparent that they would have been kindred spirits, but something in Phipps's past changed him, and I can't wait to read about his background in one of the future books. Phipps is a toadying, bitter assistant to the mayor with his own agenda for getting rid of Spooking, and an annoying, Dursley-ish (but smarter) boy cluelessly helps him. Joy tries desperately to save the bog through a variety of means, involving several memorable side characters.

The preservation of the bog brings in an environmental element, but it doesn't dominate the story. The balance between Spooking and Darlington is rich and complicated, and there is more than enough to fuel a trilogy. Joy is a delightful heroine with her stubborn Spooking pride and moments of self-awareness. I highly recommend this book, and I can't wait for Book Two next summer.

Where to begin? First I would like to refer to other reviews here by lenore531, and Allison M. Campbell. They simply took the words right out of my mouth. Really spot on reviews that capture the essence of this book perfectly!

P.J. Bracegirdle creates a world where the sunny, safety of the suburbs and the things that go bump in the night collide in a brilliant mix of chills and tongue-in-cheek humor, all while conveying insightful, sarcastic social commentary that I think both children and adults will easily resonate with. In many ways I found his writing style reminiscent of Mark Twain and Tom Robbins. As I followed the main character Joy along on her spooky adventures, I kept thinking of when I first read about that infamous rascal, Tom Sawyer as a boy.

Joy is carefully crafted in a way that is equally accessible to both boys and girls. Possessing a compelling fascination with the macabre, a taste for adventure, as well as a sharp and observant wit, Joy comes across like a blend of Tom Sawyer, Hermione from the Harry Potter series, and Wednesday from the Addams Family and all the while forced to attend school in an environment best suited for the Brady Bunch. And for those who get the joke, the hilarity ensues.

To sum it up, this book is a sorely needed antidote for a Disney-saturated culture. It serves as both a safe haven for social outcasts of all kinds and an enlightening lesson to the Darlings of Darlington.

If you grew up watching monster movies, if you're a Tim Burton fan, if Halloween is your favorite holiday, then this book is for you. If your kids loved movies like "Halloweentown," or "Corpse Bride," then they're sure to love this.

Joy Wells is a huge fan of the renowned author Ethan Alvin Peugeot. She can't help but think that E. A. Peugeot might of wrote one of his famous scary stories, "The Bawl of the Bog Fiend", about the bog that is right next to where she lives in Spooking.

Spooking is a small and way older town compared to it's neighboring town, Darlington. Darlington is where Joy goes to school, due to there being no school in Spooking. Joy hates going to school there, almost all the kids from Darlington joke and make fun of Joy, and her brother Byron just because they come from Spooking. The kids aren't the only ones in Darlington that want to get rid of Spooking and the bog. After a school assembly about the future of Darlington, Joy and her brother uncover a plan to get rid of the bog, that may possibly be the home of the Bog Fiend in Peugeot's story, and eventually Spooking itself!

Fiendish Deeds is an awesomely spooky gothic themed book. I really like the gothic theme of it, it is sort of like Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events but it has a different feel to it. Which makes it all the more spellbinding. Joy Wells is also a wonderfully created character, very believable. As I read the book, I wanted to step right into it and help Joy save the bog. And her brother, Byron, is just as wonderfull.

The plot was great. I was always wondering what was going to happen next and right when I wasn't expecting it BAM there was a surprising twist that caught me toataly off guard.

I recommend this book to any one around the ages from 8-16. Some adults might like it too, if you think it mght be good then odds are you will.

Originaly posted on bokreviewmaniac.blogspot.com

Joy Wells, connoisseur of classic horror stories, the famous author E. A. Peugeot, and the swamp in her hometown of Spooking, has a problem. In fact, she has several.

First, she is forced to abandon her creaky old town of Spooking to descend to the suburban city of Darlington to attend school. Second, no one else seems to appreciate how amazing the spooky Spooking swamp is. And third, she has discovered that someone in Darlington has a plan to build a water park over her beloved swamp!

The Spooking swamp is the source of endless entertainment and speculation for Joy, especially because it may have eerie connections to E. A. Peugeot's haunting masterpiece, "The Bawl of the Bog Fiend." Joy loves the swamp, but it appears that no one else does, and without opposition, it is clear that the Spooking swamp will soon be extinct.

What can Joy do but oppose this horrendous plan, taking a stand against those determined to annihilate the swamp - and the town of Spooking - forever?

FIENDISH DEEDS lays the groundwork for what promises to be a unique and compelling trilogy. The premise of this young adult book is interesting and, though the conflict acquires a certain level of melodrama through Joy's point of view, it still manages to nudge the reader towards speculations about the meaning of progress and the value of history. Joy is a fearless and quirky protagonist who unhesitatingly draws the reader into her own interests and cares, including the ever present E. A. Peugeot, a clever doppelganger of Edgar Allen Poe.

FIENDISH DEEDS hits the ground running with a feisty protagonist, unlikely allies, and a sinister adversary as it introduces a grand adventure touched with mystery, action, horror, and the barest hint of romance. I was utterly disappointed to reach the end of the book only to find that FIENDISH DEEDS raises innumerable questions that it then refuses to answer. My only consolation is that there is a second (and third) book to come.

Reviewed by: Rebecca Wells

Children that grow up in relative comfort, love, and sanity get sick of that stuff pretty early in. This is no reflection on the people who have raised them or the world in which they inhabit. It's just that when you live in safety and security you may wish to shrug off the quiet world in which you live with and make a break for anything that offers you dank corners and mysterious underpinnings. The essential premise of P.J. Bracegirdle's "Fiendish Deeds" did not at first appeal to me. In spite of its alluring Nicoletta Ceccoli cover, the title and the glace I took at the book jacket did not initially cause my heart to beat any faster. It looked like Tim Burton lite, which I understand there is a market for but could it really be worth my time to read? It is in cases such as this that it really all comes down to the writer's pen. If it were not for the fact that Bracegirdle is a talented author with an original story cobbled together out of unoriginal parts, I might have despaired long before finishing the first chapter. However, if "Fiendish Deeds" offers the reader anything it would have to be a truly enjoyable leap into dark bogs, long lost mysteries, and cunning foes in wholly new ways and worlds. When I tell you that I could not stop reading, I mean it. This looks like the beginning of a beautiful series.

Joy and Byron Wells are Spooking residents and quite proud of the fact, thank you very much. Though the town is old and decomposing slowly, Joy would much rather spend her days exploring its crooks and crannies rather than have to attend school in Darlington, the shiny city down the hill. Of course Joy's real fun comes when she gets to read and reread chapters from her favorite book, "The Compleat and Collected Words of E.A. Peugeot", an Edgar Allen Poe type of collection. Joy is convinced that Peaugeot spent time in Spooking, recording the deeds of a monster in the nearby bog but to her horror that very same bog is due for destruction thanks to the mayor of Darlington and his right-hand man Octavio Phipps. Now Joy and Byron must do what they can to save the bog and its denizens, even though they are only two people and there are dangers out there the like of which they've never known.

It is a reluctant fantasy, as if the book is straining against its otherworldly chains in an attempt to be relevant and realistic. Instances that seem to be fantastical turn out to have practical real world causes. In a way, we are sucked into Joy's need for the spooky and unexplained, but aside from some pretty hungry leeches (which conjure up memories of Lemony Snicket, to say the least) and hints of "disappearing" that never come to fruition, this is a pretty realistic little book. Funny that Bracegirdle that give all the indications of a magical story, but when push comes to shove it's the writing that provides the intimations of magic. Not the plot.

I was rather fond of the writing anyway. I must have been to continue reading it at all, really. You know that you are in good hands when in the first chapter a little old lady writes in her will, "The rest of it, including this house and all my worldly possessions therein, please flatten with one of those giant balls on a chain." Who doesn't love a good ball on a chain anyway? And Bracegirdle appears to be a fan of contrasts, pairing the cute and cuddly alongside the fanged and rabid with relative ease. Spooking, we are told from the start, is an old village full of, "Drafty old mansions, standing impossibly against the onslaught of time - each sinister and terrible, they flash with menace whenever a storm rolls in." The nearby town of Darlington, on the other hand, is hideous in its own suburban fervor. The height of its ridiculousness comes when Joy and Byron attend a birthday party in a faux pink castle. About the time you come to the "girls, wearing shiny smocks and pointed princess hats [who] bickered viciously over turns on a mechanical unicorn," you too would be ready to pack it all in for Spooking, never to return.

The book also happens to contain a villain of whom I have grown inordinately fond. I am not always a fan of the villains found in children's books. Too often they're just two-dimensional set pieces meant to stand in for "Evil" in some manner. I think a good villain is one that lets you into their head a little. And a really successful one can make you sympathize with them on some level. Think of Claude Frollo in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", as one example. In this particular case our villain is Octavio Phipps, a man attempting to avoid his own fate by any means necessary. He's a former punk rocker (not your usual spooky occupation for a bad guy) with a penchant for an elegant phrase. He is not a good man, but he does make some awkward stabs at civility that are always interesting to watch. One gets the feeling that though he manages to kill two people in the course of this story, he probably can tell himself that they were both accidents and believe it.

The general rule when it comes to villains is that if there is a mayor in a children's book, they are a bad mayor. This is always true unless A) The mayor is the hero's dad or B) The mayor is the hero. The same rule often applies to principals of schools. And the usual crime committed by mayors? City development, of course. You probably saw it in "Hoot" where it threatened endangered owls and in "Highway Cats" where it threatened felines. In this case the redevelopment would threaten only the residents of a bog, but it's still seen as a pretty underhanded act. Sex scandals and graft are difficult to impossible to work into children's middle grade novels, so good old nepotism and illegal development often have to do the job instead.

Consider this a kind of "Edward Scissorhands" for the new millennium. It's a book for those kids that love Emily the Strange, The Addams Family, the Pure Dead Wicked books, and anything else with a bit of spook and scare to it. This may be the rare book that satisfies both the kids who long for fun realistic fiction and those who like their fantasy novels dark. A crowd pleaser and a darn good bit of fiction in its own right. Fine writing.

(to the tune of My Favorite Things)

Graveyards and bog fiends and tombstones and leeches

Plants that devour small creatures with screeches

Huge snapping turtles that hide from the light

And nobody goes into Spooking at night

Little Joy Wells is the star of our story

It's gloomy and dark, but not overly gory

Trying to uncover the secret it keeps

She dreams of the bog every night as she sleeps

When the bog's drained

When the marsh dries

It won't be so bad

Just simply remember the money it'll bring

And then you won't feel so sad

Yellow school buses and bullies in waiting

Darlington children go Spooking kid baiting

The Mayor's in his element, making a plan

To drain that foul bog any way that he can

Theme parks with mermaids and slides full of water

Move certain creatures prior to the slaughter

One man and his wife dare to stand in the way

Despite all the efforts to chase them away

When the bog's drained

When the marsh dries

It won't be so bad

Just simply remember the money it'll bring

And then you won't feel so sad

Similes and metaphors, personification

Colorful phrasing to suit the occasion

Adjectives, onomatopoeias - Yay!

This is a book that you'll read in one day

(Recommended for ages 10 and up, and fans of Lemony Snicket)

Amanda Richards, September 27, 2008

Cast aside any preconceived notions you might have about this remarkable book because they are undoubtedly mistaken!

First, there appears to be nothing supernatural or magical going on; all the events, no matter how bizarre, appear to have logical, real world explanations. (Of course whether these logical, real world explanations are the correct ones remains to be seen in many cases.)

Second, this is NOT (as I had feared) an environmentalist wacko rant disguised as a children's book; environmental protection is merely a convenient club seized upon in a struggle truly about something else.

Third, despite Joy Wells' initial belief (prejudice?) not all Darlings or Darlington characteristics are evil, not all Spookies or Spooking characteristics are good. One expects to find a gentle lesson about the virtues of diversity in the end.

However, the biggest surprise might be the droll, delicious wittiness within. As other reviewers have noted, Mr. Bracegirdle has a unique turn of phrase, a unique vision. The chief villain, Octavio Phipps, is one of the most interesting and fully developed children's book characters I've encountered in many a year, and I may not ever again be able to keep a straight face at a "themed" children's birthday party after reading Bracegirdle demolishing the Kiddy Kingdom.

As I had feared, a number of loose ends are left untied for the rest of the trilogy; as I had also feared, I shall now be unable to resist reading them.

Joy and her family live in Spooking, a town that has been almost lost as most of the inhabitants moved out long ago. It is not your usual town but is one that is rich in history and mystery, a perfect place for our imaginative Joy to live. Joy loves anything dark and creepy, and reads over and over the writings of E.A. Peugeot as she tiredly researches the legend of the bog fiend. Things that go bump in the night for Joy are not something to run from, but are to be explored. However, sadly for Joy both her and her brother, Bryon, must attend school in nearby Darlington, the perfect American town that simply cannot understand why anyone would live in Spooking. The children are anything but kind to them and both Joy and her brother must endure name-calling.

The story heats up as the author begins to layer mystery upon mystery as we meet some top players in this read,like Mr. Phipps who appears to have many secrets all surrounding Spooking, and the loveable Madame Portia, who lived in the bog with her late husband and is bursting with knowledge that Joy simply must tap into. However, when Darlington wants to do away with Joy's bog and put in a water park the action really beings, as you clearly see this will be a war to the finish.

I liked this book. The characters were very well mixed from likeable to detestable, funny to scary, kind to evil. The locals were very well defined and the story was packed full of adventure and ran smoothly, building up to the ending with one mystery following another. The cover is perfect and definitely leaves you feeling, 'creepy,' and wondering just what you will find between the pages of this book. I look forward to the next two books in author, P.J. Bracegirdle's trilogy.

Enjoyable and well done.

Great fun read that appeals not only to it's target audience , but i think many adults would like it too. As with all things , one should take it for what it is. If you are looking for Salem's Lot , War and Peace , The great american novel , than by all means don't expect that. If you just wish to drink in a good little story than here it is!