[LISTENED TO: Summer 2016 & November 2016] Nightmares!
I loved Jason Segel on How I Met Your Mother. I loved that Jason Segel was instrumental in bringing The Muppets back to the big screen. And now I love that Jason Segel has written a series of really enjoyable–funny and frightening–children’s books.
This book is about–wait for it–nightmares. But not in the way that you might expect. Segel (and Miller–I have no idea how much she contributed to the book) have created a realm where Nightmares live. It is a wonderfully realized and very well thought out world. And I am really impressed with how well the whole story works.
It is the story of Charlie Laird. Charlie is a pretty normal kid. He does okay in school, he has friends, his family loves him. But three years ago his mom died unexpectedly. It was a harsh blow to him and his family. Charlie has never really gotten over it. And what has made it especially tough is that Charlie’s dad recently got remarried. Apparently he got over it just fine.
If that weren’t bad enough, Charlie’s family moved from his old house–the house he grew up in and loved–into the mansion on the hill. Not a far move–still in the city of Cypress Creek–but worlds apart from what he was used to. Or what he wanted.
The mansion has always been there in town. It is huge and…it is purple. It towers over the whole town–you can’t avoid looking at it–and it has always been rather creepy. It was built a long time ago by Silas DeChant, and it has been in the DeChant family ever since. So it makes sense that Charlie’s new stepmother, Charlotte, who is a DeChant, would want to live there.
But Charlie hates it And he hates Charlotte, and he hates anything that tries to get him to see reason about his horrible stepmonster (I didn’t like the lazy use of this term, but it is rather appropriate).
But ever since moving into the mansion, Charlie has been having really horrible nightmares. A witch drags him to a castle and locks him in a cage. But ts unlike any nightmare he ever had before. The witch seems very real. The witch talks to him, the witch knows everything about him and the witch especially knows what Charlie is most afraid of. The witch and her cat, Agatha, prowl around Charlie planning to eat him..starting with his toes.
Things have gotten so bad that Charlie is trying to stay awake at night. Which means he falls asleep during school. His friends notice but so does their brand new principal, Principal Stern who is, let’s face it, mean.
Charlie has three best friends. They have been friends since they were very little and now even though they have very different interests, they are still tightly knit together. There’s Alfie, the nerdy genius. Alfie is terrible at sports, but is very funny and has a great memory for detail. Then there’s Rocco. Rocco is great at sports–all sports. He’s not exactly dumb (Alfie wouldn’t hang out with him if he were), but he does struggle from time to time. And then there’s Paige. Paige has been there for Charlie forever–all through when his mom died. She is like a family member to him. She is a rock, even when her own mother has gone through some really difficult times.
The four are always there for each other, even when things get tough. Or, as in this case, even when Charlie gets tired and cranky with everyone because of his lack of sleep. After upsetting all of his friends (and getting trouble at school) the three finally have it out with him. And he admits what’s bugging him. He is convinced that his stepmother Charlotte is a witch. She looks just like the witch in his dream and she came with a cat named Aggy. She wants Charlie and his little brother, Jack, out of the way so she can have their dad all to herself
The friends think he’s overreacting, but they promise to take it seriously. So they follow her. Charlotte owns a story called Hazel’s Herbarium–a creepy store that creates potions and such for curing all manner of things. And who knows what else. Charlie is convinced that Jack is in danger. The friends tail Charlotte but see nothing untoward. Which just makes Charlie more angry.
It turns out his friend have all been having nightmares too. But Charlie dismisses them as not scary (Alfie keeps failing a PE class and Rocco keeps failing a test). And then one night Charlie believes that the witch from his dream has entered the mansion. He hears footsteps by Jack’s door and then up the stairs. He follows and as he gets to the room at the top of the stairs, the walls that were always there have turned into a … portal?
Charlie hears his brother’s scream and so he goes through the portal. To the Netherworld.
But a portal is a two-way street–if he can go into the Netherworld, what’s to stop the nightmares from coming through too?
It turns out that everyone’s nightmares are acted out in the Netherworld. The more you have nightmares the more real estate is given over to you. It turns out the city of Cypress Creek has been having pretty intense nightmares and their real estate has grown quite a bit. But nothing can happen to you there–your spirit goes to the Netherworld at night, but your body is safe. However, since Charlie crossed through the portal, his body is there. And his life is very much at stake.
Amazingly, all of that is less than half of the book.
While in the Netherworld, he meets many nightmares who are actually on his side. There’s a clown who tries to help and, more importantly there’s a slick-looking man named Meduso who is actually working to get Charlie back to the waking world. Meduso, in case you haven’t guessed, is related to Medusa. And in one of the many funny bits, Meduso is a snotty finishing-school-bred gorgon who wears pressed clothes and hates to get dirty (Segel’s audio delivery is outstanding). Later when Medusa arrives, she is a wonderfully hilarious diva–an actress who has mirrors all over her house, even though peeking in one would turn her to stone.
I was going to save my review of Segel’s audio reading for later, but it’s snuck out already. Segel is fantastic at reading this book. He loves his characters and had fully realized all of them–from main characters to funny nightmares with one line. His voice for Medsuso is so snotty he’s hilarious and Medusa–the preening diva–is even better. He also does a great job with a scary voice. Principal Stern has a great deep voice. And when he’s in the Netherworld, he creates all manner of voices for goblins, monsters and even a grub (a fat 6 foot tall grub with a really high-pitched voice is genius).
So Jack is in the Netherworld trying to get his brother back. But in his travels he sees Alfie in his own nightmare. In Alfie’s nightmare, he is in a roman coliseum trying to do a fitness test. And he is subject to the cruelty of the Netherworld’s main bad guy: President Fear. Later they find Paige in a nightmare of her own. They are astonished because Paige isn’t afraid of anything. Meduso has to keep telling them that everyone is afraid of something. And eventually we see Rocco’s nightmare–taking an impossible test. If he passes it, the children trapped in the school will be freed. But the test is, literally, impossible.
The book feels like it could end several times. And yet each time that it doesn’t is because of a very good reason–mostly to do with fighting your own fears.
Segel has done an amazing job in creating suspense and fear yet keeping everything lighthearted enough that things never get really really scary. Like when the mean guy called Paige “Podge” in his deep authoritarian voice.
And Segel’s narration is outstanding. The only problem I had with his voice was the voice of Charlotte wasn’t distinctive enough from his narrating voice. But other than that, he was amazing.
I understand that the book has drawings, but as with every audio book, I haven’t seen them. But I’ve now listened to this book twice and enjoyed it immensely both times.
We’ve already listened to the sequel (which I’m delighted to see was alluded to at the end of book 1…well done, Jason) and I see that book 3 in the series came out in September of 2016. More great things to look forward to.
Since we’ve listene dto this, Tabitha has listened to it about 5 times–she loves putting on audio books to go to sleep. I’m not sure if she’s actually listened to the whole thing many times, but she’s certainly listened to certain parts a bunch of times.
Leave a Reply