Pages of Doom

Having had the absolute pleasure to read and review the first book in this series, Book of Screams, I was absolutely thrilled to get to read the sequel. This excellent book unfolds through short stories, and it does not require the reader to have read the first book to understand what is going on. We have the overarching plot of Tanya and the “evil ink”, and then we have the delicious and dark short stories that each tell a different tale. Therefore, we have chapters that are simply the stories unfolding, and we have chapters that further the story of Tanya and the ink! Tanya might have stopped the evil ink from becoming too powerful in the first book, but can she withstand its evil powers while trying to control the ink? Alternatively, will the ink end up controlling her? Tanya has a clever plan to execute, but is she going to be able to outsmart the evil or will it outsmart her?

Szpirglas is an incredibly good writer! He weaves these stories together in a seamless fashion, and the stories are intricate and frightening for the age level readers. What makes his writing unique is that the books are readable all in one sitting or can consumed story by story which will make reading this book less daunting to reluctant readers.

The illustrations in Pages of Doom are phenomenal, and, if you pay attention, you notice that the images are right before the reveal to amp up the reader’s imagination. I find this to be a highly effective way of allowing the readers imagination to play out, and then giving them a bit of a visual fright to make the scares more profound!