Blog Tour | Scareground

Hello, and welcome to my stop on the Scareground blog tour, published by Neem Tree Press and organised by The Write Reads. This is a middle grade horror novel, read on to hear my thoughts!

Title: Scareground

Author: Angela Kecojevic

Published: 7th September 2023

Publisher: Neem Tree Press

Genre: Middle grade, Historical, Horror

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?

Huge thank you to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for sending me a copy of Scareground and for having me as part of the blog tour!

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book! I love a middle grade horror novel, and it’s a genre that I always jump at the chance to read. In this novel we meet Nancy, an orphan who has been adopted by the lovely Crumpets, the local bakers. She spends most of her time on the rooftops, where she can communicate with the sky. When a mysterious fairground arrives, Nancy and her best friend Arthur decide to investigate. They meet the spooky owner of the fair Skelter, and begin to hear some troubling and scary stories about the fairground’s past.

This is such a fun idea for a middle grade novel, spooky fairgrounds that appear through the mist are always going to be excellent! The author is very imaginitive in the novel, from the descriptions of the fair to the interactions with the weather, its all so creative and fun!

The characters in the novel are really interesting too! I wish we had got to know more about the people who live and work in the Scareground, they didn’t get fully developed for me. Perhaps that’s something for the following books? But the characters we did get to know were really fun. The Crumpets, Nancy’s adopted mother and father were such genuinely lovely people, it is impossible not to fall in love with them. Their love for Nancy, and their joyful personalities were so well developed, and I could fully imagine them busy making cakes and bread in their bakery, a shop full of love and warmth.

Nancy and Arthur were interesting child characters. They read like accurate 12 year olds which I really liked, and their voices were enjoyable. I liked their friendship a lot, the everyday squabbling that goes on when you’re kids.

Overall I liked this spooky middle grade novel. It has a fun and unique setting and some really brilliant characters!

Huge thank you again to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for having me on the Scareground Blog Tour.

Buy Scareground from Bookshop.org or Waterstones