eARC of The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

 I got his from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

Title: The Stars Did  Wander Darkling

Author: Colin Meloy

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Rating: 2.5 stars

Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies.

All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. A man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an ax chopping in the middle of the night.

He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.

Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late. . . .

This sounded like an interesting one and I liked that it was set in the 1980's but it just fell a bit flat for me. 

It's about something strange and evil being unleashed after Archie's father and the construction company he works for starts digging in this one spot opening up something long burried. 

Strange things begin to happen to those who live in the town of Seaham and Archie and his friends are the only ones who have noticed something wrong happening. This is mostly due to Archie's friend Oliver who seems to have some weird visions that nobody believes in till it gets to strange to deny. 

So now these kids have to try and figure out what to do to save the town. 

I loved the friend group in this book, they were all a bit different but still worked being friends. I just don't think I was a huge fan of the writing style and it felt a little bit more YA than MG to me especially with how things went down at the end. 

Also it says in the blurb that Archie is a huge horror fan but I really didn't get that vibe from him, I know that he had seen a few movies and loved hanging out in the horror section at the video store but that doesn't really make you a huge fan. I don't know this book was just not what I thought it would be I guess.

I do think that that I would suggest this one be for older middle grade readers maybe or younger teens.