Dylan has a bad feeling about the Good Night Motel. Ever since he and his mom got kicked out of their apartment, their new living arrangements have given him a serious case of the creeps. The roof is sagging; the wallpaper is peeling. The weird twin owners have painted-on smiles like Victorian dolls, and the handyman always seems to be lurking.
And, of course, there are the Rules. Break three, and you’re out for good.
Dylan couldn’t care less until he’s cornered by a kid who claims to know the truth about this place. The real truth. You see, when people break the rules, they don’t just get kicked out of the motel. They disappear.
And Dylan and his mom could be next.
Much like he did with his middle grade horror novel THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH (the only other book of his I’ve read so far), Tehlor Mejia tackles some incredibly serious subject matter with his upcoming release, THE CREEPS.
Twelve-year-old Dylan Vega and his Mom are going through a rough patch. Dylan’s Mom has a chronic illness, the biggest symptom of which is chronic fatigue. She’ll sleep most of the day, for days at a time. It’s left Dylan with no choice but to look after himself, while being his Mom’s caretaker. Additionally, his Mom is unable to work, and they’ve been evicted from their apartment.
With nowhere else to go, they wind up at the Good Night Motel, kind of a rundown roadside establishment.
Right away, the place gives Dylan some Extremely Bad Vibes. It’s kind of gross & smelly. There’s something deeply creepy about the two old people who run the motel. And worst of all, the EXHAUSTINGLY LONG and strange list of rules that all the motel occupants must follow.
Every rule broken is a strike. Three strikes and you’re gone. The most important rule, rule #1: DO NOT GO INTO THE BASEMENT.
Dylan really struggles to settle in, and his Mom continues to struggle with chronic fatigue. But Dylan is able to make a good friend while at the motel. Ollie is a longtime resident of the motel, which seems to draw in people who are having a difficult time in life. Ollie lives with his sister Winifred and their Aunt Susan.
Ollie tells Dylan his theory that people who get three strikes aren’t just kicked out of the motel, they are truly gone. Like, disappeared.
Gone.
It’s up to Dylan and Ollie to sneak all over the motel and get to the bottom of what’s really happening, before it’s too late. For all of them.
I cringe slightly at the term “sporror,” but ugh, THE CREEPS features a whole lot of mold & mildew & spores! In my mind, that’s not something that would bother me a whole lot. But as I was reading this one, particularly towards the end, I almost felt a heaviness in my chest and an itchiness in my eyes. It was getting to me, no doubt!
Another way THE CREEPS was similar to THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH was in its depiction of friendship. I loved Ollie so much, and his friendship with Dylan becomes so important. Ollie is almost aggressively earnest & friendly, whereas Dylan is a little more reserved and frankly a little burned out. So Dylan is a little hesitant to even engage with Ollie at first, but their friendship evolves into something incredible.
I think the heaviness of what Dylan was going through really weighed on me a lot reading this. Generally speaking, most of the middle grade horror I’ve read has been super fun. Even the books that tackle serious issues like grief, or trauma, or loss. And of course some middle grade horror books are VERY creepy. But still…middle grade horror is so much fun. I think THE CREEPS is a really good book, it just didn’t give me that same vibe. Which is ok, it’s just something I’ve come to expect. But Dylan is going through life in a way that felt really unfair to a kid his age and it made for some tough reading. Hopefully this book will find its way to kids who can relate in some way to what Dylan & his Mom have been going through.
Big thanks to Random House Kids & Delacorte Press for sending this one along! THE CREEPS releases on October 6th!
