Empty Smiles

June 1, 2022
Arden's quartet of seasonal horrors concludes with sinister clowns at a carnival. A dry summer in East Evansburg sends friends Brian, Coco, and Phil to Lethe Creek to cool off. But there's been an Ollie-shaped hole in everyone's lives since the dastardly "smiling man" took her. The smiling man releases one of his other trapped children to deliver a message: they'll need three hidden keys to win Ollie back. Meanwhile, Ollie--traveling with the smiling man and his carnival--tries to figure out a way to escape him on her own. When the carnival moves to East Evansburg, the stage is set for the final showdown. By day, it's a fun-filled paradise. By night, the carnival's clowns hunt wayward children to turn into dolls. Without the keys, Ollie and friends will be next. While predatory clowns and humans-turned-dolls are far from new territory, Arden once again flexes her gift for atmospheric writing to envelop readers in the story's eerie mist. The expert use of pacing and sensory cues--sights, sounds, and smells--helps heighten the genuinely terrifying chase scenes. Chess matches and conversations between Ollie and the smiling man humanize the shape-shifting villain, exposing just enough of his motives to wrap up unanswered questions. Earlier volumes establish that most characters are White and Brian is Black. A thrilling and chilling end to a standard-setting series. (Horror. 9-13)

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August 1, 2022

Gr 5 Up-The terror continues for Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Phil in this frightening series finale. It's been three months since Ollie disappeared after making a deal with the Smiling Man to save her friends and family. But as time passes, her friends start to lose hope. When a boy goes missing from a carnival and then reappears, traumatized and rambling about a scary man who took him, the three friends know he is talking about the Smiling Man and that their moment to save Ollie has finally come. Arden never disappoints with her thrilling, spine-tingling scenes and this book is full of them. First came scarecrows, ghosts, and monsters, but she has saved the best for last: evil clowns! VERDICT Fans of the series won't be disappointed.

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September 23, 2022
Grades 4-7 The final book in Arden's quartet that started with Small Spaces (2018) deliciously ramps up the scares. After making a deal with the smiling man, Ollie is trapped in his traveling carnival. She passes the time trying to find a way out, guardedly playing chess with her captor and exploring the carnival during the day (when the smiling man says it's safe). But when she breaks his one rule and ventures into the glittering midway at night, terrifying clowns start chasing her and she learns the truth behind the game stalls' alluring prizes. Meanwhile, Coco, Brian, and Phil are desperately trying to find a way to free Ollie, and as they try to solve the smiling man's latest riddle, they decide they need their parents' help--only now, their families are in danger, too. Arden's descriptions of the carnival and its eerie army of clowns is fittingly creepy, and though a relatively abrupt ending might disappoint some readers, the unsettling atmosphere will delight middle-grade horror fans who want to send a chill up their spines.

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