Monster Movie!

When 12-year-old Ethan feels overwhelmed by his anxiety, his best friends—devil-may-care goofball Harley and confident, pragmatic Olivia—help him overcome his fears. Such is the case when they convince him to attend a classmate’s viewing party of Demons of Death 4: Death Fingers, an urban legend–inspired horror film that’s “supposed to be the scariest movie ever made.” Though Ethan arrives late, he’s just in time to watch the television transform into a cyclopean creature that devours people’s heads while leaving them alive yet unresponsive. Now Ethan must find a way to confront his own fears without Harley and Olivia if he hopes to rescue his friends and save the world from an unstoppable menace, along the way discovering the secrets behind the film and its monster. In this gleefully off-kilter ode to late-night B movies and classic kids’ horror tales like Goosebumps, Wendig (Dust & Grim) skillfully tempers terrifying events with a tint of absurdity, playing them against Ethan’s all-too-relatable worries. It’s a fast-paced and intense adventure that never loses sight of its human elements. Ethan and Harley are white; Olivia is Black. Ages 8–12. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Sept.)