A frightfully fun young adult horror adventure.
Sometimes it can be difficult to embrace the peculiarities that make us unique. This is especially true for high-schooler Kali. Internally, she represents many young girls, juggling feelings of inadequacies and teen angst. On the outside, however, she couldn’t be more different from her peers. Derisively called the Squid Face Girl, Kali has conspicuous tentacles that hang over her mouth. She keeps to herself as much as possible and covers her facial anomaly whenever in public, so as to blend in as best she can. But school can be a cruel place for someone that stands out as different, and unfortunately for Kali, her home life is not much better. Her parents, who busy themselves managing a restaurant, treat Kali more like free labor than a daughter. One day, Kali receives an unexpected gift in the form of a collection of dark poetry. This mysterious book leads her into a nightmare that dwarfs her real life troubles. But, experiencing this living horror might also be the very thing she needs most.
Isom’s characters don’t just tell a story. They make you feel something. Empathy. Pity. Indignation. It only takes a chapter or two before you’re wanting to jump into the story and defend Kali from Brett, the school bully. Kali is a beautifully crafted character that any teen who is taunted, feels different, doesn’t like their body, or knows what it is like to be an outsider will easily relate to. In the mystical world located within the pages of A Wretched Little Book of Poems, Kali meets a boy named Gary, and the two of them battle a series of horrific situations and beasts as they try to escape an unfortunate fate. Their shared experiences range from being attacked by bloodthirsty zombies to wrestling evil parasitic creatures, but together they learn what friendship, trust and bravery really mean. Isom adds a few surprises to the suspenseful storyline and ties up any loose ends before readers reach the final page. An extraordinary blend of Jumanji, Edgar Allen Poe and the Twilight Zone, Squid Face Girl and A Wretched Little Book of Poems is a frightfully fun young adult horror adventure that ultimately helps readers realize that being unique is something to be proud of.
