LAST LAUGH

A boy is haunted—and hunted—by possessed clown dolls.

Victor’s older sister, Sarah, mocks him because he’s afraid of their grandmother’s creepy collections of figurines and other odd objects. Sarah’s terrified of clowns, so when Victor, Sarah, and their younger sister, Genevieve, must spend the night at their grandmother’s house alone, he breaks one of the few rules—don’t go in Grandma’s room—to borrow a clown doll and hide it under Sarah’s pillow. The doll vanishes, kicking off a string of strange events. Could Sarah have caught wind of the prank? Or is there actually an army of animated clown dolls after him? What starts off as a series of blink-and-it’s-gone doll spottings quickly escalates into nonstop harassment; soon, the dolls also begin targeting Victor’s sisters and his friend Gareth. Victor goes to his grandmother for help, only to find she’s unconscious from a mysterious ailment—Victor knows it must be connected to the clowns, raising the stakes for him and his loved ones. Although the setup is somewhat contrived, the fast pacing and short chapters ending with ominous final lines quickly get readers to the good stuff. The book also makes clever use of design, breaking up sentences across multiple lines at key moments. The big climax and denouement are followed by a delightful twist. Victor and his siblings have olive skin and dark curly hair; Gareth is Filipino.

Solidly executed, with fast and frequent frights.