Alex decides to burn his writing notebooks in the basement cellar late one night. He's hoping doing so will make him not quite so weird, nor such a target for school bullies. But then the elevator stops on the 4th floor, instead of the basement, and the sound of a horror flick playing on the TV in an apartment draws him like a moth to a flame.
Before he really understands what's happened, Alex's been lured inside the magical apartment by the witch Natacha, and he's given a horrific choice -- keep writing his horrid tales for the apartment's amusement, or she'll turn him into a figurine for her curio cabinet.
He's not the witch's only captive. Yasmin slaves away below the magical apartment, cultivating the witch's plants for ingredients in her spells. In the pages of the witch's horror story library, they discover "unicorn girl," another captive who apparently escaped -- at least, that's what the two teens think.
What happens when Alex runs out of horror stories to tell? And why does the apartment shake so much when he hasn't read to it all day?
This has J.A. White's typical dark fantasy feel and tone, but the ending on this one is supremely satisfying in a classical fairy-tale sense. Enjoy!
I loved White's Thickety series, but it wasn't to the rest of my family's taste. This tale was consumed by all -- and thoroughly enjoyed.
