A review by minimicropup
Hampton Heights by Dan Kois

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

So creepy and suspenseful to start. As the characters go door-to-door canvassing it took a turn into casual fairy tale/fantasy territory that I didn’t love. I liked the dark, almost over-the-top (in the best way) Intro and Kevin chapters, it just clashed with the lighter fairy tale style stories for the kids’ chapters for me (readers who prefer the fantastical/magical stories may feel the opposite!). 
 
Energy: Wary. Heartwarming. Venturesome. 
 
🐕 Howls: 
The horror-lite kids’ perspective chapters when they encountered their horrors. The commentary within the story sometimes felt heavy-handed yet a bit dumped into the story. 
 
🐩 Tail Wags:
Charming, nostalgic writing style. Atmospheric tone. The eerie kids’ perspective chapters just before they encountered their horrors. The foreshadowing and omniscient third person narrator. Feeling of unease. Effectively using “show-not-tell”. Felt like connected series of short stories. The characters and their development. The realistic teen friendships. 
 
Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in small town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Perspectives: Jumping from different perspectives as needed. There’s the route manager/driver overseeing the door-to-door canvassing for six kids 12-14 years old. They are from various backgrounds, each with a different motivation for doing the paper route and a different approach to the assignment and making new friends.  
Timeline: 1987. December, just before the Holidays.
🔥 Fuel: Unease. Intriguing hints relating to future events. 
📖 Cred: Magical Realism
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Rusty van. Predawn gloom. Burger King. Neon beer signs. The Paperboy video game! Gingerbread. Playboy magazine. Lucky rabbit’s foot. 
  • Coming-of-age boyhood friendships
  • Preteen job struggles quest
  • Gradually getting to know the characters (with depth)
  • Hook-up gone wrong
  • Werewolves, magicians, trolls, witches fairy tales
  • ‘something’s off’ neighbourhood
  • Tales exploring racism, cultural appropriation, sapphic romance, classism, greed, and materialism. 
  • Parallel plots connecting
  • Get-comfy-and-listen-in third person narration style
  • Reader tagging along with the characters, fly-on-the-wall
  • Vivid, wintery, atmospheric Midwestern Americana
 
Content Heads-Up: Nicotine (cigarettes). Sexual content (consenting; descriptive). Body fluids (descriptive). Loss of parent (very brief recall; as baby). Racism (double standards, bias, prejudice). Cultural appropriation (kids). Homophobic slur (historical; kids). Bullying (preteens; historical; racist and homophobic slurs; name-calling).
 
Rep: Black, White, Hispanic, and Indian American. Second gen American. Diverse body shapes and sizes. Cis. Hetero. Bi. Lesbian. Dark, freckled, brown, olive, and pale skin tones. 
 
📚 Format: Library Digital
 
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