I recently had the pleasure of receiving an eARC of Scarewaves by Trevor Henderson in exchange for my honest review. As a fan of analog horror, spooky stories, middle grade scifi horror, kids that bond over supernatural trauma, and more, I was happy to give this one a shot.
Disclaimers and Content Warnings
While I did receive this book for my review, the following post is my honest opinion.
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Scarewaves is a horror novel and includes supernatural scares, monsters, missing children, presumed death of children, child trauma, suggestions of abuse, and more.
You don’t stay out after dark in Beacon Point…
The small town of Beacon Point has always been plagued by eerie local phenomena. It’s a town where disappearances are common, strange creatures have been sighted with unnerving frequency, and a ghastly secret lurks in the woods.
The adults in town are oblivious to these strange occurrences. Others prefer not to talk or even think about them. But over the course of several terrifying nights, a group of kids will come face to face with the horrors hiding within their sleepy town. Guided by the mysterious radio host Alan Graves, they must follow the clues to a terrifying secret before it eats them alive.
Scarewaves was an absolutely refreshing read after DNFing and slogging through a stack of adult horror that was more literary mumbling than terrifying scenarios. I know some horror fans bypass middle grade and YA horror books for what they feel will be better scares and writing on the adult shelves but let me encourage you to try them out. I find middle grade horror to be a blend of nostalgia (both for my own childhood as well as a type of childhood I saw on tv and in movies that I never had), traditional monster horror, and some really creepy scares that might have you checking under your bed before you sleep at night. Henderson’s Scarewaves is one of those gems.
We get a lot of the typical tropes for middle grade horror and horror dealing with kids. We got the new kid in town, the nerdy kid that people roll their eyes at for being a know-it-all, the mullet kid from the rural area of town that may or may not have an abusive parent (I honestly was really pleased with how Lucas was handled as I was worried we might have a Scud Farkus or Henry Bowers type when he was introduced), the bad ass babysitter taking care of her ward, and more. While the tropes might be ones we all know well, these were handled wonderfully. I felt hints of Coraline, with Mary that were more a wink and a nod than too on the nose. I also felt a strong leaning towards Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a favorite among many kids and adults. So much nostalgia.
I am a huge fan of analog horror and having the Alan Graves BCON radio broadcasts separate story chapters was wonderful. We got lore drop about Beacon Point without the characters having to info dump. By the end of the book, I was deeply invested in this radio show and only wish we got more of Alan’s story.
If I have one complaint about Scarewaves (other than wishing it was longer and hoping for a second book in the Beacon Point universe of monsters) is that I don’t feel like we could really bond with the characters. There were several of them and by the time we get to the climax where they’re all together and working on their plan to get proof of the supernatural entities bothering them, I found myself caring less for some of them and more for others. I think it might have been a more emotionally hitting book if Henderson had focused on Byron, Mary, and Lucas rather than bringing in the others. I get why he did it – one entity or type of entity per kid allowing for a variety of Beacon Point’s terrors to be on display. However, I think it would have worked out with just three kids and the suggestions that others were dealing with similar things.
Bonus! Trevor Henderson has a hand in one of my new favorite games, Don’t Play This Game. You can learn more about it here on my playthrough of the demo.
