The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Atlanta to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father—a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby—she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him—something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.
The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. But then, Tasha meets a girl named Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims. Tasha doesn’t believe it, but when she discovers a book of hoodoo legends in her grandmother’s trailer, and more people around Shady Pines start to appear unwell, she begins to fear the stories are true—and that danger is much closer than she thinks.
I have still never read a single GOOSEBUMPS book (hoping to change that this summer, I’ve got at least one I’m planning to read!) Same goes for SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK.
I think it’s just a generational thing, paired with my near-total lack of interest in reading until I was around 14 (although I was apparently a voracious reader in first & second grade…then I guess I just lost interest until I discovered Stephen King!) I’m always jealous of my horror friends who grew up devouring the GOOSEBUMPS books, because they seem like such a good time! Alas, it just wasn’t my experience.
TALES FROM CABIN 23 is a new ongoing middle grade horror series created by Justina Ireland and Hanna Alkaf. I haven’t been able to find a ton of info about the series, but the concept behind these books is that they are written by & about people from marginalized communities! So this is just a very cool project to support, and hopefully gives modern day kids their very own GOOSEBUMPS-like series to fall in love with.
I think Justina Ireland is incredible, full stop. Everything of her’s that I’ve read has been fantastic, and THE BOO HAG FLEX is no exception.
THIS BOOK IS SCARY, FOLKS! Like really, really scary. Scarier than you think it’s going to be based on the (very cool) cartoonish cover. This story is so dark at times, and Ireland does not shy away from that darkness. I’ll try to sort through some of that in a spoiler-free way, but yeah…there’s some very emotionally mature subject matter here. All of it is certainly age-appropriate, I just think the creepiness & occasional dark tone of the book caught me off guard ever so slightly.
The whole setup for the series will feel pretty familiar to horror fans. Think of it like “Tales From the Crypt,” only instead of the Crypt Keeper we have the creepy witch who resides in the nebulous Cabin 23, at Camp Apple Hill Farm. I’m assuming each volume will feature a different camper who stumbles upon the witch, and the witch tells them a scary story.
THE BOO HAG FLEX tells the story of Tasha Washington, a twelve-year-old girl from Savannah, Georgia. When we meet Tasha, she is reeling from the loss of her mother, who died from a COVID-related illness. Tasha’s father takes custody of her, but the only thing is…she’s never even met him.
But he picks her up & they awkwardly drive to the Shady Pines Estates, the trailer park where John, her father, lives with his Mom.
Lucky for Tasha, though, her grandmother is a total sweetheart. Ms. Washington makes Tasha’s new living situation as comfortable as possible, and the two really hit it off. Tasha especially likes that Ms. Washington has a library full of books about things like cursed objects, hexes, and Southern myths & legends!
Also helping Tasha adjust s Kim, her father’s new girlfriend. But with John, there is little to love. He just doesn’t make any time for Tasha, and can be a bit rude when he bothers to spend any time with her at all. It’s really sad.
But between Ms. Washington, Kim, and a cool neighborhood girl named Ellie, Tasha settles in for the summer.
AND THEN THE SCREAMING STARTS.
No really, things get wild! Sadly, some animals turn up dead in the trailer park. Old people start dying. Maybe just…because that’s what old people do, right? But no. These deaths in the trailer park are extremely suspicious, and Tasha and Ellie know that something creepy and supernatural is at work here. Tasha & Ellie go full Scooby Gang here, researching and investigating, determined to uncover the truth about the mysterious creature that’s responsible for all the recent death and misery in Shady Pines.
The pace of this story is brisk & the book is less than 200 pages, so buckle up! And like I hinted at before, the tone of this story can feel very dark. Grim, even. Some of the horror elements are a bit more graphic than your average middle grade horror novel, so just something to be aware of. The neighborhood pet deaths, the death of a parent, and the absentee father are just some of the things to know about before jumping into THE BOO HAG FLEX.
Tasha is a great main character, someone that’s easy to root for. She’s way more resilient than someone her age should have to be, and is still a compassionate & curious kid. The best horror stories work when you really care for the characters, and that’s something Justina Ireland really leans into.
What a cool start to a really awesome-sounding series! I’m so excited to check out the next installments of TALES FROM CABIN 23!
Grimdark Dad 