This was another middle grade book that came after my time. It's still requested a lot, so I decided to check it out for myself. 'Skeleton Man' opens suddenly with Molly coming home to an empty house. Her parents are gone, at school a teacher notices somethings wrong and soon Molly is handed by social services to a strange old man who claims to be a distant relative and has the documentation to prove it.

It doesn't take long for Molly to figure out something is wrong with her "Uncle". He never eats and there seems to be something in the food he gives her, so she she stops eatng it, and he locks the door of her room at night. This is a gripping middle grade horror story built off of a Native American legend. Molly's dreams offer her horrific visions, but also inspire her to make her escape and possibly save her family, too.

Skeleton Man

Next: 'Return of Skeleton Man'

Not much of a review but I wanted to jot down a few notes on this book:

This is a short read. The book has a mere 204 pages. And yet, it took me what I perceived as an eternity to finish the book because:

1. The writing drove me nuts:

In an earlier discussion with TA, I referred the style of writing as that of hearing the voice of Jeeves for the entirety of the book without having the benefit of the grounded interjections of common sense summaries of a Wooster. 

Another way to describe the narrative style, which, in addition to the stilted phrasings of a Jeeves, also thrived on an overuse of similes and metaphors is if you picture the film Murder by Death, that excellent spoof of the detective genre, where Peter Sellers plays an "oriental" detective who keeps confounding his fellow guests at a house party with phrases that are so obtuse that it is not clear where we are going. It works a treat in a spoof, but has no place in the actual mystery.

2. The plot...

I had a hunch about the culprit very early on, but could not figure out the motive. It is only in the last few pages of the book that we learn about the why of the murder. Too little, too late, and I really dislike that we are not allowed the relevant information throughout the book to come up with the solution ourselves. 

3. I was bored, and I should not have been because there were some very interesting (for their time) observations on social mores in the book. Yet, they were buried in quite a lot of purple prose...so they mostly were lost on me.

Gaaaaah. Next!

This is not horrible. However, the pacing and the writing in general is not gripping me at all.

Even tho we now have a victim, I find it hard work to care.

I'm tempted to set this aside and pick another book, except that this one is rather short and I am already a quarter of the way in.

Hm, ... It maybe the onset of a slump, it may be that I'm not in the right frame of mind for reading this particular flow of narration, but I'm finding it difficult to focus on this story.

I'll switch to an audiobook for a bit...and for another square.

I am not sure if this one will fit my bingo squares, but I have this at home from the library and it is due back next week. 

I had a peek at the reviews for this one on GR, and I am going in with low expectations.