The Creepening of Dogwood House

April 15, 2024
A period of upheaval and heartbreak in a Black preteen’s life is exacerbated by supernatural forces in this emotional Southern horror by Royce (Conjure Island). Twelve-year-old Roderick Bolden has been in the care of Williamson Orphanage ever since his mother’s death. That is, until the intervention of Aunt Angela Hamilton, Roddie’s only living relative, whom he’s never met. Grieving the loss of her estranged sister, Aunt Angie welcomes Roddie to Dogwood House, the family’s ancestral home. The mansion, “a monster place in the middle of nowhere,” has been languishing in disrepair, and Aunt Angie intends to restore it. Grateful for his new home, Roddie is nonetheless unsettled by the dilapidated structure and the disturbing things he encounters, such as discovering clumps of hair under peeling wallpaper and a skeletal figure in an upstairs window. After Roddie finds a map of Dogwood House drawn by his mother, Aunt Angie informs him of the family’s hoodoo culture. Now, Roddie must connect with his cultural history to ward off the evil spirits that have taken notice of him. Royce employs marvelously eerie ambiance to craft a tale that is at once a moving narrative about grief and remembrance and a frightening, slow-burning haunted house adventure. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret.

July 1, 2024
Grades 3-7 Roddie's grieving the loss of his mom and staying at an orphanage while social services attempts to contact his sole relative, Aunt Angela. When she and her husband finally arrive to pick him up, they take him to her childhood home in South Carolina, where Roddie's mother also grew up. His aunt and uncle are attempting to renovate the crumbling, ancient home, and Roddie notices unsettling things, like a persistent rotting smell, that make him think there's a dark relationship between his family and the house. Curious Roddie investigates the oddities and, in the process, learns about his family's hoodoo practices, like burning shed hair to ward off evil--and in this case, a very specific evil, a creature called the Bridgeweaver, who uses the family's hair to take their memories and control them. Royce (Root Magic, 2021) offers an excellent middle-grade horror story full of eerie atmosphere that nicely folds in the importance of connections to cultural history, meaningful examinations of grief, the literal power of Black hair, and how to find light in darkness.

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Starred review from June 1, 2024
A tragic event leads a tween to move in with his aunt and uncle in his family's mysterious ancestral home in South Carolina. Twelve-year-old Roderick Bolden has always treasured his hair. Recollections of sitting at his mother's feet while she braided his thick Afro as they chatted about their days are some of his most cherished memories. Following an accident in which his mom's car was engulfed in flames, Roddie was left orphaned, with only one living family member--Aunt Angie, his mom's sister, whom he's only met over video calls. After Roddie's spent two months in an orphanage, Aunt Angie and her new husband, Erik, finally return from a long, offline honeymoon in Brazil. Shocked by the news, they're ready to reconnect with family roots and care for Roddie. The trio moves into Dogwood House, the bone-chilling fixer-upper that his mother never told him about, even though she grew up there and it's been passed down through the generations. Aunt Angie tells Roddie about their family's hoodoo traditions, including a legend about an evil monster who wreaks havoc with people's shed hair. Royce's latest offers readers a strong, character-centered, hoodoo-infused narrative that's a tribute to the beauty of Black hair. The richly detailed settings will make readers feel as though they're right there with Roddie, and themes of family, heritage, and grief provide anchors for the creepy mystery. A thrilling, hair-raising story with strong cultural roots and a well-developed sense of place. (Horror. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2024
In this Southern Gothic horror story, a twelve-year-old boy mourning the loss of his mother goes to live with an aunt he barely knows and her new husband. Orphaned Roddie finds that his family's ancestral home, Dogwood House, is more of a "monster of a place out in the middle of nowhere" than a residence. While there, he learns several things about his mom and her upbringing, including that she grew up adhering to hoodoo, an African American spiritual practice. The plot centers around hoodoo beliefs about the need to burn shed hair to avoid "evil spirits" and the ability to rely on ancestors for help. Roddie rejects these tenets until he discovers the inherent risks of tossing shed hair aside and finds notes left behind by his mom that lead him to shocking discoveries. The tween finds it confusing that his mother never mentioned the house she departed as a teenager, leaving her younger sister behind. Royce (Conjure Island, rev. 7/23) effectively builds suspense around this question and the odd things that happen at Dogwood House while cleverly interweaving facts about hoodoo. She also provides a realistic portrayal of the way grief ebbs and flows amidst a kid-friendly scary story that includes a quest for answers, a confrontation with a monster, and a house that transforms to reveal family secrets after dark. Marva Anne Hinton

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
In this Southern Gothic horror story, a twelve-year-old boy mourning the loss of his mother goes to live with an aunt he barely knows and her new husband. Orphaned Roddie finds that his family's ancestral home, Dogwood House, is more of a "monster of a place out in the middle of nowhere" than a residence. While there, he learns several things about his mom and her upbringing, including that she grew up adhering to hoodoo, an African American spiritual practice. The plot centers around hoodoo beliefs about the need to burn shed hair to avoid "evil spirits" and the ability to rely on ancestors for help. Roddie rejects these tenets until he discovers the inherent risks of tossing shed hair aside and finds notes left behind by his mom that lead him to shocking discoveries. The tween finds it confusing that his mother never mentioned the house she departed as a teenager, leaving her younger sister behind. Royce (Conjure Island, rev. 7/23) effectively builds suspense around this question and the odd things that happen at Dogwood House while cleverly interweaving facts about hoodoo. She also provides a realistic portrayal of the way grief ebbs and flows amidst a kid-friendly scary story that includes a quest for answers, a confrontation with a monster, and a house that transforms to reveal family secrets after dark.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)