Book Review: The House at the End of the Road

The House at the End of the Road by Kari Rust

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are lots of things to like about Kari Rust's second children's book. As both author and illustrator she has a unique opportunity to control all aspects of the story. However Rust doesn't do this as effectively as I would have liked her to.
The cover and blurb imply this is a scary story, and it is, sort of. I know five year old children who would be sooo disappointed that there are only two pages of 'ghosts' and the rest is just about (albeit cool) old stuff. I would have liked the suspense of a possible ghost to extend longer, maybe a second trip before they tell Grandma(?) That said there are many younger children who may find this a little bit intense. If your child tends to be afraid of Disney villains than on first read be prepared for a bit of fright. However the beauty here is there is no real ghost and so subsequent reads are likely to be fun.

The part I don't like about this story, and my primary reason for only giving it three stars is that the elderly gentleman is just taken away from his home. It disturbs me to think that we are teaching children that old people are just removed from unsafe places. This is definitely not the norm in big cities and feels like a side effect of the story that Rust was perhaps not intending to imply. I also don't like that all his items were gone. Where did they go? Did he get them? His family? It's a little too loose for me and I can see many children asking where his stuff went and no (easy) answer being forthcoming.
With some tweaks this could be an amazing children's story. Unfortunately for me it doesn't quite hit the mark and leaves too many questions unanswered.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Follow me on Goodreads