Written by Dan Smith and illustrated by Luke Brookes (pub. Barrington Stoke)
“What’s wrong with you?” Mam insisted. “Give him a hug.”
“I don’t want to.” Lauren’s voice started to crack as she fought back tears.
“Just leave her,” Kyle said, putting a hand on his mam’s arm. “She’s scared.”
“Scared of what?” Mam glared at him. “There’s nothing to be –”
“Stay away from me.”
Connor’s words were quiet and menacing.
He was staring right at Lauren with a dark and hungry look. An ugly sound rattled deep in his throat, and his pupils were so large that his eyes seemed completely black.
Because whoever that is sitting at the kitchen table, it’s not Connor – especially as the army had just informed Kyle and Lauren’s mam that he’d been killed in action in Northern Ireland.
Connor’s return is just the beginning. Before long, a strange virus is sweeping the tower block of Alpine Heights, leaving many dead…but are they really? Or is something far more sinister at play?
This is File ME347, the “Deadsoul Project”, an unsolved case from over 40 years ago. The Nightwatchman has decided it’s time for us to know the truth.
I’m going to start by saying that I’m a big fan of shows like the X-Files and Twin Peaks. Despite being *mumble mumble* years old, I am absolutely the target audience for this book.
The book starts by setting up our context; it’s being written in 2024, but the case itself is from 1977. It’s being shared by the author on the order of the Nightwatchman – the head of a shadowy organisation called the Night House, which investigates “the paranormal, the extraterrestrial, and the bizarre”.
It’s a fantastic framing device. By having each story be a case from the Night House’s files, it gives the future books free reign when it comes to what, when, and where they’re about. It’s not a series in the traditional sense, but rather an overarching way, much like the Goosebumps books were (I guess I’m showing my age there!).
The case itself is told like a normal story, but scattered throughout are interviews from years later with people who were there or connected to it in some way. Each one has a ‘classified file’ background, and uses a typewriter-style font, making them immediately stand out from the rest of the book.
I really enjoyed these interviews, as it meant we were getting context and information from much later in time for what was going on, or at least what some people thought was. You’d think that it would take away some of the tension, or feel ‘spoilery’ but it doesn’t. If anything, it helps ramp the tension up, as we know things the characters don’t.
The story itself, which takes up most of the book, is not a slow burn. The whole thing takes place over less than 24 hours, and we know this as we are given regular timestamps. Many of these (apart from overnight, or when the kids are at school) are only a short time apart, some only a few minutes. This constant update shows just how quickly the situation is escalating, building a sense of urgency.
Smith’s use of written sound does a fantastic job of creating fear, with periods of silence and stealth that leave you holding your breath. There is also a distinctive noise that features (no spoilers!), which left me gripping the book tightly every time I saw it written on the page.
The illustrations by Brookes are a great addition, and I really liked the ‘comic book panel’ style of them. They’re used to show the creepiest and most dramatic moments, and complement the author’s writing perfectly without overshadowing it.
I can’t lie, the story is somewhat grim – like others that deal in dark truths and revelations, there’s no happy or neat conclusion. This isn’t one of those “plucky kids solve the mystery” books (which, to be clear, is not meant as an insult as I also love those books). This is a tense, chilling, non-stop ratcheting up of dread not for the faint-hearted, culminating in an ending that feels genuinely earned.
Don’t be fooled by the typesetting; this is not a book for young readers, but is designed to be dyslexic friendly, as with all Barrington Stoke books. We absolutely love what they do as for a long time, if children wanted stories with darker themes, they mostly had tightly-spaced doorstoppers to read. Barrington Stoke’s books help to make genres such as horror more accessible to a wider range of readers.
It’s a gripping start to this new series, and we can’t wait to read more when the second book ‘The Wintermoor Lights’ is published in September. The teaser implies it’s about alien abductions…but considering the twists of The Deadsoul Project, I’m going to channel my inner Mulder and stay open-minded!
If ever there was a spiritual successor to Goosebumps, by way of the X-Files, then The Night House Files would be it – and I’m so pleased that new generations of readers can feel the same kind of exciting terror as I did growing up.
If you want to open the Night House files, you can grab a copy of The Deadsoul Project at the link below.
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Looking for more scary reads? Check out some of our previous terrifying book reviews here.
