'What’s hiding in Harwood Forest?
'When Pete, Nancy and Krish arrive at Heathland Camp for a school trip, they’re in for an adventure – just not the kind they were expecting. Nearby sits the abandoned Harwood Institute. The crumbling buildings are out of bounds but strange screams come from the surrounding forest at night. Mystery shrouds the events that took place at the institute during the war, so Pete and his friends make it their mission to find out the truth. But the forest is hiding a sinister secret, and the trio could be in real danger ... Are some mysteries best left undisturbed?'
The Beast of Harwood Forest is the spooky follow-up to last years The Invasion of Crooked Oak, and proves to be a creepy and tense monster caper.
I feel I need to admit that I've not read the previous book in this series, which I know is bad of me, but that being said, I was able to jump straight into this book without any difficulty as Dan Smith has managed to make it very easy for new readers to get to know the characters. The book could have very easily been a stand-alone adventure, and for that it's very accessible for those, like myself, who missed out on the first book.
The story follows Pete, Nancy, and Krish, three friends who love to investigate the creepy and the supernatural. On a school residential trip, they expect to spend the week taking part in zip-line activities, campfire cookouts, and if they're lucky a spooky story or two. However, when Pete sees an abandoned building set deep in the nearby Harwood Forest he feels like it's the perfect kind of place to check out.
Unfortunately, the camp staff won't tell him much about it, other than the kids aren't supposed to go there. With no other way to find out what the place is about he, Krish, and Nancy decide to sneak out of their dorms one night and go and explore. The plan sounds easy, but when they discover some dark, secret experiments from the war, and something stalking them through the darkness their night of fun becomes a race to escape.
Dan Smith is really, really good at building atmosphere, and despite the relatively short length of the book (only 110 pages) he manages to pack it full of creepy location and tense moments. From the very start, when Pete sees the distant Harwood Institute, things begin to build towards their inevitable conclusion, as Pete becomes almost obsessed with the strange buildings. They're a constant thing, always on the edge of the scene, or the focus of Pete's thoughts that they almost take on a life of their own.
The book doesn't just rely on this, however, and once the trio head out into the woods they quickly find some creepy things hidden inside them; strange offerings hanging in the trees, ruined buildings, and a batch of files that hold some disturbing secrets.
The thing to remember about the book though is that it's for kids, and as such whilst it does have a lot of tense and scary moments it never pushes too far into full blown horror, and manages to walk that very fine line where kids will get some scares reading it but hopefully won't end up having nightmares.
There's also a bunch of great illustrations throughout by Chris King, who really manages to bring the story to life. Whilst the gorgeous cover art is presented in full colour the interior work is done in black and white, and this just adds to the atmosphere of the story. The dark and moody nature of the grey-scale images means that even those moments set during the daytime have an air of foreboding, and the times where we get to actually see the creature that haunts the woods is brilliant. The artwork goes so well with the story that I found myself wanting more, and hoping that perhaps one day the creative team would come together to turn it into a full graphic novel.
The Beast of Harwood Forest is the perfect story for young readers who like to get a little scared, who are like our three heroes and have a fascination with the spooky and supernatural. But it's also a story that older readers will get a kick out of, as Dan Smith is able to craft a tale that's interesting an engaging enough to span all ages.
Make sure to check back later today for an interview with Dan Smith.
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