This book is on the scarier side for a middle grade horror pick, but still perfect for this month, I felt!
Justin's best friend, Zee, disappeared for an entire year. He won't talk about where he was, what happened, but he's clearly traumatized.
When he appears at his own "Welcome home!" party, he plunges his friends into the h@$% he just escaped.
Justin, Nia, Lyric, bully Carla Jenkins, and her little brother Quincy engage in a game of "Hide and Seek" with another friend, Shae, who they don't realize has already gone missing, too.
And when the game is broken up, they don't play by the "rules," they find themselves branded with a special mark, a spot, that when it flares, one by one they fade from reality and enter the world of nightmares, of the things that frighten them the most, the world of the Seeker.
But Justin and his friends are not total horror-flick nubes -- they figure out their backpacks go with them, when they fade, and they pack supplies, from junk food to duct tape and pretty much anything each of them thinks they can use to get back home. They are prepared and not taking this abduction as typical, frightened kids. They're ready to fight back.
But who is the Seeker, and what does it want? Justin and his friends find the other children the Seeker has stolen, over the decades, and figure out its diabolical plan.
It's no longer about just going home; it's about saving the world.
Enjoy this truly horror genre story this month!
