Spooksville #1: The Secret Path by Christopher Pike (SPOILER FREE BOOK REVIEW)

It's time to review THE SECRET PATH, book no. 1 in the SPOOKSVILLE series by Christopher Pike! This is a middle grade horror series that's quite a bit more intense than a Goosebumps book! Check out this spoiler free review!

📖 ABOUT ME: I'm an Author, Pastor to Kids, and Book Reader! I love to read mostly middle grade fantasy, sci-fi, and Christian fiction as well as non-fiction books on writing, Children's Ministry, and creativity. I can often be found reading a good book and talking about them to anyone who will listen. I especially love re-exploring the Christian fiction books that formed my generation!

#ShaunStevenson #Booktube #middlegradebooks #rlstine #Ghostsoffearstreet #fearstreet #goosebumps #Spooksville #ChristopherPike

[mrmortman]

I read this one I think last year or the year before around Halloween I'm planning on continuing the series around juneish but I really liked this one!

[SpongeyTheEditor]

I linked to my blog post before so I can mainly focus on this one. As the pilot, i didn't find it slow at all. I was kind of impressed by how it is. In general I quite enjoy the character interactions here and here I rather like getting introduced to them. I like how the path is used to explore the lore of Madeline Templeton and it works on its own. It mostly avoids the usual pilot trappings of only working as an introduction.

And yeah the stuff in the 3rd act is pretty cool. I suppose is on the more “deliberate” side, more about lore and charming interactions than action. That's a common structure for a fair few.

It works better than the structure Goosebumps can have where it can be a slog as usually you can have annoying Fake outs or the characters are nothing special. Pike's writing makes these very easy to read and get into.

My post has some of my top books you can look out for. They can mostly be read out of order although continuity exists and book 2 introduces Cindy who joins the crew. Also, The Living Dead is a direct sequel to The Dangerous Quest.

Watch ends up being the best/most development and Sally is the most fun. The series is good at the little character moments.

I can go on but that is what the blog is for lol. So yeah, that's my spiel lol.

[fernando.bertola]

I used to love the Spooksville books! This video brought back so many memories, thank you!

[ratzgum]

i read this book when i was 10 and i remember loving it

[ShadysideLibrary]

Although it’s been a while since I’ve read this book, I’d like to say I felt the exact same way you did. It all felt pretty slow and uneventful until the “final act”. I still haven’t dove into the next book lol. I should probably get on that haha!