Deephaven

By Ethan M. Aldrigde

5/5 ducklings 🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣

tl;dr Nev’s new school is hiding a dark secret and, along with their best friend Danny, they have to find it before someone else gets hurt.

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Guinevere “Nev” Tallow needs a new start, a place to reinvent themself and be who they are without the threat of their father’s endless debts hanging over them. The acceptance letter from Deephaven Academy is that chance.

But Deephaven isn’t quite what Nev expected. Nev finds themself adrift in a sea of students whose wealthy parents are real estate moguls and even minor royalty, none of them ever had to scrape by selling the mechanical trinkets they built to passersby in the park. And then there are the prefects, both of whom have their own inscrutable motivations with dangerous consequences.

Even after all this, Deephaven has deeper, darker secrets hidden behind patient smiles, lies and a door hung with bells.

Deephaven was delightfully gothic, an excellently built mystery with all the spooky atmosphere I could ask for. Despite being middle grade horror, Aldridge does not talk down to his readers, laying out a complex mystery and unsettling scares and trusting readers to understand. It was a refreshing experience.

I loved the unexpected nonbinary rep. I went into this book mostly blind and I was so pleasantly surprised to find a narrator with they/them pronouns that I relistened to the beginning of the book twice. My favorite part is that Nev’s gender identity isn’t a big deal, the story isn’t about that, it isn’t about their coming our or helping their friends understand their identity. This was a spooky horror story that featured a nonbinary main character. I loved it!

I listened to this as an audiobook, and as soon as I was done, I went and got the sequel, “Scrimshaw”. The narrator was great, giving each character a distinct voice without feeling like they were ever doing a parody.

My biggest problem with this book is that there is nothing else like it out right now and I’m stuck waiting for the next book.

#readqueerbooks #gothichorror #fencingisarealsport #bookstagram #middlegrade #horror