Tell The Story To It's End ARC Review -- 1,2 Eren's Coming For You

Tell The Story To It's End | Simon P. Clark
Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Genre(s): Middle Grade, Mystery
Pages: 208
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Rating:

People are keeping secrets from Oli. His mum has brought him to stay with his aunt and uncle in the countryside, but nobody will tell him why his dad where his father is. Why isn't he with them? Has something happened? Oli has a hundred questions, and only an old, empty house in the middle of an ancient forest for answers. But then he finds a secret of his own: there is a creature that lives in the attic…

Eren is not human.
Eren is hungry for stories.
Eren has been waiting for him.

Sharing his stories with Eren, Oli starts to make sense of what’s happening downstairs with his family. But what if it’s a trap? Soon, Oli must make a choice: learn the truth—or abandon himself to Eren’s world, forever.

Reminiscent of SKELLIG by David Almond and A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness, EREN is richly atmospheric, moving, unsettleing, and told in gorgeous prose. A modern classic in the making.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author/publisher. This does not affect my opinion or views regarding the book whatsoever.

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REVIEW

I'm Not Scared Of Anything ..

besides a monster that can tell a damn good story.

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Did you ever have an imaginary friend as a child? Like your shadow that you named Penelope, a doll or special toy that you confided in? I most certainly did. I didn't have conversations with the dust specks that floated through the air or anything, but I had teddy bears, dolls, and barbies that I chatted with, told my darkest secrets to. For me, it's almost nostalgic reading stories about children who enter this phase as I once had, witnessing them create pals out of random objects like a toaster, or a paranormal phenomena like ghosts. So when the opportunity came to read Tell The Story To It's End I jumped on it, not only because October called for some creepy reads, but for the simple fact that there was no way I could ever pass up a story involving a monster.

I mean, I like monsters, not enough to talk to them, but I do like them . . .

Something fishy is going on, and 12 year old Oli knows it. 

Is it the fact that his mom dragged him from London to the countryside to stay with her brother he's never met?
Or is it because his father didn't tag along, and no one wants to explain why? 

The answer . . both. After arriving to his mother's childhood home to live with her brother and his wife for an undetermined amount of time, Oli knows from the jump something isn't quite right. His mother is on edge, constantly arguing with a mystery person on the phone, and his uncle and aunt look as if they want to say something, but of course cat has their tongue. As the days turns into weeks his father still hasn't shown up, and whenever he brings up the topic of his missing dad, he's shoo'd away, completely shut out from whatever is going on. So what's a kid to do when he's left in the dark, trapped in a bubble no one seems to be bouncing in besides himself? Well you not only befriend two curious kids from your neighborhood, but you become close pals with the monster that is hiding in your attic.

He was smoke turned into a bat - or a bear, tattered and old. His face was pointed - a wolf, a rat? A vulture? - and his eyes shone, brighter than the stars far behind him. He was big, old, moving, creaking, grinning.

Eren was hauntingly beautiful. He was both real and a figment of your imagination, contorting your reality to lure you into his world of cleverly spun stories. He was both good and evil, friendly - a great companion even, yet sinister. At first I was captured by their friendship, but it didn't take long before I began to fear for little Oli, wishing him to leave Eren to cower in his dark realm of the attic. Because monsters are indeed monsters, and this one had Oli right where he wanted him, pulling him closer and closer from reality, deeper into his pits of darkness. The unexpected ending took me by surprise, and as Eren mentioned, " stories never end " holds so much truth.

'There is no end,' he says. He swoops down and his wings darken my sky. 'No end, Oli. Tales go on and on. They come from before you were born, and they echo on after you leave.

Tell The Story To It's End, surprised me like no other. It was dark, creepy, magical, and shockingly sad, showing us fairy tales don't always have happy endings. Clark used this story about stories to captivate us while opening our minds to the art of storytelling, and I don't think I'll ever be the same.

I think it may be time to warn my three year old about imaginary friends.

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