I Just Read About That…

[LISTENED TO: December 2016] Nightmares! The Lost Lullaby

I was really excited to get this third volume of the Nightmares! series.

The previous book ended with the startling revelation that on the first day of the new school year, India Kessog (INK) is sitting in Charlie’s classroom.

INK and her sister ICK were responsible for creating the tonic that nearly destroyed Orville Falls–not to mention the Dream Realm, the Netherworld and the Waking World.

Charlie and his friends knew that INK was on this side of the portal and that her sister ICK was still in the nightmare realm, but they never expected that INK would come to them rather than then having to track her down.

INK is still dressed like she has always been–in old-fashioned clothes with a red bow–exactly the way that she (or ICK, they are twins) terrorized everyone’s dreams in Charlie’s town.  As INK walks through the school–observing everything very carefully–all of the kids keep their distance and stare and whisper.

When she sits down to eat, she is repulsed by the chicken nuggets–who wouldn’t be?  But she loves the tater tots.  That must make her okay right? (c’mon, EVERYONE loves the tater tots).  Charlie is just about to go approach her when his little brother Jack beats him to it.  And he starts talking to India (he calls her Indy) like she was his friend instead of a monster.  They seem to be having a good conversation until a new characters approaches.

She is Jancee Dare and she is the largest kid in the school (bigger even that Rocco, the captain of the football team).  She is the star player of the town’s football team, and is known as the quarterback killer.  And when she sees India, she gets right in her face.  But India seems to be acting very innocently.  She acts like she doesn’t know anything about the dreams that people have had.  And she seems unconcerned with Jancee’s threats.  In fact, she looks at Jancee perspiring and asks her if she’s been near a war.  What is this kid doing? She even kinds of freaks Jancee out.

Charlie can take no more and he runs up to interfere and accuses her of all kinds of things, which frightens India off and gets Jack really upset.

Jack maintains that India is a nice girl, she is his friend.  Charlie obviously can’t abide this kind of talk and he goes on the manhunt for this nightmare girl.

In other news, there’s a new teacher in school.   Her name is Ms Abbot and she is weird.  She dresses all in black, has black hair and other goth accoutrements.  And she is a creepy science teacher.  She brings in a snake to school and, Charlie soon discovers, she has asked his stepmother for a whole bunch of poisonous plants for her garden.   Charlie is instantly suspicious of her, but Paige and Alfie think she is amazing.  In fact, Paige gets really jealous of Alfie because Ms Abbot is so impressed with his science skills (and he’s not even in their class)!

But Charlie really can’t stand her.  In fact, Charlie can’t stand much of anybody in this book.  He becomes an extremely unlikable character–whether intentionally or not, I found myself hoping he’d be wrong a lot.

But seriously, why does she want all of these poison plants?

Another weird thing is that Charlie keeps popping up in someone else’s nightmare.  He falls asleep and is stuck in a pen with a whole bunch of sheep.  They are doing nothing but eating and pooping.  What’s scary about that?  Well, it turns out that this is actually ICK’s nightmare. And as soon as he hears someone singing a lullaby, ICK comes running in and freaks out.  (This would be the titular lost lullaby).

On a more fun note, Ollie Tobias has been taking real pride in his redecorating skills.  As the book opens, when Charlie wants to follow INK into the girls’ bathroom, we see Ollie sneaking out.  He has just painted an amazing scene in there.  And that’s only the first of his masterpieces to appear on a wall in this book.

But on to the plot.  INK has been sneaking into Charlie’s house (where the portal is) trying to talk to ICK. ICK keeps trying to break into the mansion but they have sealed the entrance from the tower where the portal is.  India keeps trying to open the door to let ICK out.  The first time she uses a blowtorch.  But Charlie catches her and as she runs away, she lights the wallpaper on fire.  She already burned down the lighthouse, is she trying to burn down Charlie’s house as well?

But what’s the big deal if ICK gets out?  She’s just a girl right?  Well, a dangerous girl first of all, but she has also been amassing an army.  An Army of big strong (stupid) nightmares.  And if they can get through that locked door, they will easily take over the waking world.

So it is Charlie’s job to capture INK and lock her up.  Or something.  But Jack is convinced that she is good.  And some of Charlie’s friends are starting to agree with Jack.  Why are they all being traitors to him?

This story was very exciting and had some outstanding back story.  I loved the addition of Ms Abbott as a character–she is weird and cool and really brings a wonderful understanding to some of the concepts in the book (mimicry, finding goodness in seemingly bad things (like poisonous plants)).

I do admit that I missed the nightmares–there’s very few scenes in that world, although there are on or two where Dabney and Medusa appear.  And there’s a brief scene with Meduso (and his three snakes) as well.  But most of the action in this book takes place in the waking world.  And this gives Segel yet more accents to play around with (his accents for the Kessog girls are great).

And now is a chance to admit that every time he said “Jack asked” I heard “jackass” which made the quotations even funnier.

I love that Ollie is getting more creative, that Alfie is getting even nerdier.  And that Rocco has an important part to play with the football team (Rocco has been the least utilized character, so it’s nice to see him doing things).  And then there’s Paige.  In the other two books, Charlie has always insisted that Paige was just a friend but that seems to be changing as they spend more and more time together.

The backstory on the Kessog girls was great–and wonderfully told by an old codger who was there when ICK and INK caused all their trouble.  They were the queens of pranks, but some of their pranks went way too far.  And their uncle was about the meanest guy going–not a fun adult for them to be staying with.  It might explain why they went so crazy.  I also really loved the Jancee Dunn story.  It would have been easy to make her big and dumb and her family dumb hicks.  But Segel makes some great an unexpected choices with them.

I’m not sure if this series is a trilogy or not.  The book neatly wraps things up.  But, at least the way Segel reads it, the final words are THE END (rising inflection, indicating question marks).

Frankly I would love more books set in this world, although given what happens I’m not sure how that would happen.  Unless, of course, he starts another trilogy about the waking world characters and gives them some other things to do.  I would certainly love a 4th book just to see what has happened to everyone in the last few months.