Scareground by Angela Kecojevic – Blog Tour

Well, this is exciting! I get to be part of another blog tour! This time, I’m looking at Scareground by Angela Kecojevic.

This is a great book for fans of Tim Burton, or Coraline – it very much feels like a story that would do well told with slightly-creepy stop-motion monochrome puppets.

The narrative arc follows Nancy Crumpet, an orphan adopted by a family of bakers. Nancy is friends with Arthur, a doctor’s son, and together, they get up to mischief on the rooftops above the streets of Greenwich… until the Scareground comes to town.

It’s actually very difficult to sum up all the threads of this book for the sake of a review without spoilering anything – Nancy sports an unusual horse-shaped birth mark and can understand the sky, the Scareground seems to be powered by fear, Arthur’s mum died and his relationship with his dad is strained, and Nancy’s family are keeping her mysterious origins a secret from her. There’s a lot for a curious child to sink their proverbial teeth into within the plot, and yet, the world Kecojevic has created feels self-contained, and almost claustrophobic at times. Normally, I’m a lover of expansive worlds that hint at possibility in all direction, but actually, the tightness of the setting really helps to foster that sense of unease that seems to permeate all old-timey fair grounds.

Because of this really tidy, almost-cramped setting, the whole thing seems even more like a puppet theatre – a world within four walls and peopled by archetypal characters. Skelter is the charismatic ringmaster, and Nancy is the plucky orphan, and both seem almost predestined to follow a certain path. There’s a sense that this story is a pastiche of Pinocchio’s circus, or The Nightmare Before Christmas – in the best possible way.

The only thing that I found slightly jarring was within the first few chapters, where Nancy and Arthur are trying to decide whether to visit the fair or not – first Nancy is going, then she isn’t, then she is again… I felt that for a child decisive enough to drop sneeze bombs down others peoples’ chimneys, the indecision here was a little out of character. Still, that’s just my preference reading this as an adult. I imagine that the sense of indecisiveness is potentially very relatable to a younger audience – especially those in this book’s target age-range who are just beginning to push at parental boundaries.

All in all, I thought this was a really fun take on fairground horror, and a great introduction to the macabre – from here, I’d point readers in the direction of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, or Chris Riddell’s Goth Girl, or the Cirque Du Freak books by Darren Shan.

As ever, I’d love to hear your thoughts – let’s talk books! What are your favourite middle grade horror stories?

Blurb

Roll up, roll up, the Scareground is in town!

Twelve-year-old Nancy Crumpet lives above a bakery and her life is a delightful mix of flour, salt, and love. Yet her mind is brimming with questions no one can answer: Why did her birth parents disappear? Why can she speak with the sky? And why must she keep her mysterious birthmark hidden?

Everything is about to change when the Scareground returns to Greenwich. Nancy is convinced it holds the answers to her parents’ disappearance. Nancy and her best friend Arthur Green meet the fair’s spooky owner, Skelter, and discover a world full of dark magic and mystery. Nancy must confront her greatest fears to get to the truth. But is she ready for all the secrets the Scareground will reveal?

About the Author

Angela Kecojevic is a senior librarian, author and creative writing tutor. She has written for the Oxford Reading Tree programme and the multi-award-winning adventure park Hobbledown where her characters can be seen walking around, something she still finds incredibly charming! She is a member of the Climate Writers Fiction League, a group of international authors who use climate issues in their work. Angela lives in the city of Oxford with her family.