Hampton Heights

Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwuakee, Wisconsin by Dan Kois, 2024, 208 pgs. 

I've seen a series of these types of books that are typically fairly short and are some kind of visitation of popular Stephen King themes. The last one I was read was A Scout Is Brave, that also had a similar retro cover, which is what first caught my eye. A Scout is Brave was ok, but this was much better. Equal parts Stranger Things, Are You Afraid of the Dark and Monster Squad, the story follows a handful of kids in the 80s who split up on a paper route to get more subscriptions, only to each encounter their own strange, Lovecraft-ian episode. The first two chapters were good, but the middle chapter really hooked me for the rest of the book. There, the boys fall under two witches' spell while listening to the story of how they fell in love. It was suprising and unexpected, and really defined the tone of the whole book. I don't really like much fiction but I enjoyed this, so you know it must be pretty good.