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Scowler
Author:
Kraus, Daniel, 1975-
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 14-19
Language: English
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LC: PZ7
Grade: 9-12
Print Run: 5000
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ISBN-13: 9780385743099
LCCN: 2012005363
Imprint: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Delacorte Press
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Pub Date: 03/12/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $16.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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289 p. ; 22 cm.
H 8.51",
W 6.15",
D 1.06",
0.9 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Teen
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles
Brodart's YA Reads for Adults
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Bibliographies:
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Senior High Core Collection, 19th ed.
Texas Tayshas Reading List
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Awards:
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Best Fiction for Young Adults
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Horror
Family Life
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Horror
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Parents
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Physical & Emotional Abuse
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LC Subjects:
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Family life, Iowa, Fiction
Farm life, Iowa, Fiction
Horror stories
Iowa, Fiction
Mental illness, Fiction
Mentally ill, Fiction
Meteorites, Fiction
Violence, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Family life, Iowa, Fiction
Farm life, Iowa, Fiction
Horror fiction
Iowa, Fiction
Mentally ill, Fiction
Meteorites, Fiction
Violence, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
5.6
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Points: 12.0
Lexile Level:
850
Reading Counts Level:
5.5
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Points: 19.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles | 03/01/2013 |
| With the help of three imaginary protectors, Ry must rise to the task when an enemy falls from the sky with a meteorite and targets Ry's family, which happens to include Ry's abusive father. Ry's not too worried; wise Jesus, Mr. Furrington, and the sinister Scowler are on his side. 304pp. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 03/01/2013 |
| Grades 9-12. Editor's note: It is Booklist policy that a book written or edited by a staff editor receive a brief descriptive announcement rather than a full review. In 1981, 19-year-old Ry Burke yearns to escape the dying Iowa farm that he shares with his mother and sister. The family's tenuous peace is shattered by two shocking events: a meteorite's crash arrival in the farm's fields and the prison-break return of Ry's father, whose monstrous physical and emotional abuse led to his incarceration. To help fight his father, the damaged Ry is forced to resurrect three imaginary childhood protectors: Mr. Furrington, Jesus Christ, and Scowler. Kraus' third novel defies easy classification in a boldly visceral coming-of-age story that explores the darkest spaces in family life and the shocking resilience of the human psyche. Engberg, Gillian. 304p. Booklist Online. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 04/01/2013 |
| R. Gr. 10. It's been nine years since Marvin Burke tortured his wife, Jo Beth, and attempted to murder his ten-year-old son, Ry. Marvin was sent to prison, Mom has since healed, Ry has wrestled with most of his demons, and his sister, Sarah, has grown from a baby into a socially awkward but bright adolescent. Now a freakish meteor strike has ripped open the walls of Marvin's jail, and dear old Dad is on the loose, bent on taking revenge against Ry, who had attacked him on that fatal day in self defense with the jagged limb of a handmade toy nicknamed Scowler. Marvin reaches the family's farm, cuts off telephone communication, brutally murders a neighbor who tries to intervene, and is closing in for the kill when a second meteor lands on the farm and the unbalanced man shifts his attention to prying it out of the ground and selling it to make his fortune. The stench, heat, and magnetic field around the meteorite affects what little reason the family collectively has left, and when Sarah fails in her attempt to run for help, father and son meet in a horrifying showdown. Connoisseurs of the grotesque have come to the right place, as Kraus' impeccable sense of thriller timing spins out the terror to its culmination in a gruesome bloodbath whose horror is only slightly mitigated as Marvin and Ry retreat into their alter egos for the climactic battle. Fans of Kraus's Rotters (BCCB 5/11) have come to expect that beneath his darkest literary impulses flow thought-provoking undercurrents, and this is no exception. At the edge of the horror is a gripping story of a family paralyzed by its own fear, and an examination of the strange places of emotional refuge a tortured mind will find. EB. 304p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2013. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 11/01/2013 |
| 3. Ry, nineteen, is still haunted by gruesome events nine years ago that ended with his father's incarceration, and the narrative shifts between the nightmarish past and the present day in 1981 when a meteorite splits open the prison, freeing Ry's father. With complex characterization and vivid descriptions, this gripping but gory page-turner isn't for the faint of heart. la. 289pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2013. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 02/15/2013 |
| A meteor shower forms the backdrop for a teen boy's Donnie Darko-like nightmare in 1981 small-town Iowa. Haunted by his past, 19-year-old Ry Burke strives to survive on a slowly deteriorating Midwestern farm with his mother and his precocious sister. Nine years before, Ry took a baseball bat and bashed in the face of his aggressive, abusive father, Marvin, after he discovered his dad had sewn his mother's naked body into the sheets of their bed. His subsequent ordeals are grisly and bloody. He's aided by three totemic objects that he calls the Unnamed Three: a blue teddy bear named Mr. Furrington, a statuette of Jesus Christ, and an antique wooden doll with sunken eyes and metal insides that he calls Scowler. All three make a timely return to the Burke household on the eve of a meteor shower to defeat his father, who has broken out of prison and threatens their family once again. Weird? Yes. Compelling? Mostly. Kraus' latest will challenge both readers' patience and their ability to suspend disbelief as they follow Ry through the harrowing evening and following few days. The plot walks the line between believable and over-the-top, and the devoted--sometimes distractingly so--attention to detail may thrill critics but underwhelm teens. A Midwestern gothic family saga that will hook readers--or scare them away. (Horror. 14 & up). 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 01/21/2013 |
| Ages 14-up. No stranger to dark and disturbing stories, Kraus (Rotters) continues to push the envelope with this hallucinatory, dread-soaked tale set in 1981. Nineteen-year-old Ry Burke lives with his mother and sister on a dying Iowa farm, still haunted by the events that landed his abusive monster of a father in prison nine years ago. A freak meteorite strike gives Ry's father the opportunity to escape and come home, resulting in a brutal struggle for survival. To save his loved ones, Ry summons up the three imaginary friends who helped him last time, risking the same descent into madness that claimed his father. While Ry's desperate journey into manhood is gripping, with Kraus skillfully amplifying a sense of tension and claustrophobia, much of the book's subtlety is lost in the chaotic latter half, which is part fever dream, part slasher film. The narrative is littered with graphic violence and extreme body horror, which may be too much for many readers (though perhaps not for fans of The Marbury Lens). The end result is a memorably brutal assault on the senses, not for the fainthearted or delicate. (Mar.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| School Library Journal | 05/01/2013 |
| Gr 11 Up. This book has the pacing of a Stephen King movie, and it never lets up on the gruesomeness. Ry Burke's boyhood was riddled with brutal abuse and near death at the ruthless hand of a father whom he referred to as the monster. As Ry became older, his father's violence intensified. Then one morning, after being told not to bother his mother because she was sick, Ry knew that something was wrong and proceeded to investigate. What he saw caused him to make a courageous decision that would forever change his life and his family's. Flash-forward some years later to the '80s, and readers find 19-year-old Ry's father in prison and his mother and younger sister using the countdown to a forthcoming meteorite crash as a diversion from the grim existence on their barren family farm. When they find out that there was an explosion at the prison and that the father has escaped and is headed home to seek revenge, the news shatters Ry's fragile psyche, forcing him to resurrect a trio of imaginary childhood friends (the all-knowing Jesus Christ, kind and gentle Mr. Furrington, and bloodthirsty Scowler) for protective support. The metaphor of the meteorite countdown enhances the tense, dark, and creepy chill factor of this gritty, well-written thriller. It's a perfect choice for mature horror readers who are looking to bridge the gap between YA and adult selections. Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA. 290p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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9780385743099,dl.it[0].title
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