The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight

Plot Summary: Jodie and her brother Mark go stay at grandparents' farm every summer. This year however, their grandparents are acting really weird. A guy called Stanley has put up a bunch of extra scarecrows in their fields and keeps talking about a mysterious book which brings them to life. Jodie then hallucinates that the scarecrows are alive for most of the book until they actually do come to life very briefly. Then they're set on fire and burn. After not actually being established as a threat. But hey, a stuffed bear comes to life in the end!

~

To think, I was actually kind of excited to read this book. I think it was maybe one that scared me when I was a kid and it certainly has a decent premise in my eyes. Unfortunately, it doesn't move past the basic concept of LIVING SCARECROWS! In fact, every cliffhanger in this book is basically identical. The main character sees a LIVING SCARECRO-h wait, no she didn't. Her grandparents are really LIVING SCARECRO-h wait, nope, they're holding a broom. It gets really old, really fast. Even when the scarecrows do eventually become living, it's not really scary because we're not given any idea of what the scarecrows will actually do. Why are they threatening? Are they trying to kill the protagonists? Why? And how when they're just normal scarecrows? It's a creepy premise like I said but it's just wasted here. Doctor Who did it better sorry.

Stine shows how politically correct he is: Stanley is kind of questionable as a bad guy because, erm...well, it's heavily implied he has special needs. Yeeeeah. Nice work there Stine. Way to make this far harder to enjoy now.

Weirdest running theme: The first few pages mention dictionaries twice in different contexts.

Worst Bond Line: There's a joke about corn which is not worth repeating.

Terrible family alert: Letting your grandkids come stay with you when you're trying to placate a man threatening you with scarecrows is pretty irresponsible behaviour really.