Return To The Campfire
I bring you a third tale of terror from the Are You Afraid Of The Dark? franchise. The Tale Of The Gravemother by Rin Chupeco. However, whereas, the first two books that I reviewed (The Tale Of The Campfire Vampires and The Tale Of The Zero Hero) were from the 90 spin-off series, this is a spin-off from the later anthologies (Mr. Tophat And The Carnival Of Doom, Curse Of The Shadows, and Ghost Island) and honestly, I'm here for it. So, without further ado, I call this the review of The Tale Of The Gravemother.
Premise: The new kid in town teams up with a local and their ghost hunter friends to solve a decades long mystery.
Zane Kincaid, his younger sister Emma, and their parents arrive in Solitude after their father inherits an old house. Of course, there's the usual tension of a mayor who had wanted the property for himself as he's been developing the town and the mansion having new owners upset his plans, but the Kincaid's lawyer, Mr. Vink (with a va-va-va-va! Come on. You know you were thinking it too. 😂) put a stop to that (for the most part). Mr. Vink the lawyer didn't really show up much, which I was kind of disappointed about, but it was fun to imagine Aaron Trager as him even though he has passed away.
As per the usual trope, Zane runs afoul of one of the locals who's the big shot on campus, Garrett Sevilla when he tries out for basketball. However, when they both witness an accident at Zane's new home followed by an apparition of the local ghost, the Gravemother, they team up to try to figure out why she's appearing and their investigation reveals that her real name is Ginevra Traithe, a woman who had been accused of being responsible for the disappearance of the three children that she had been fostering, which yeah, I can see how that would cause a ghost to crop up. However, I kinda figured that Ginevra wasn't the culprit even though she was responsible for various accidents that had happened at the manor since otherwise, we would've seen the ghosts of the missing kids throughout the story. But let me say, lady, causing accidents and just scaring the wits out of people doesn't help your case, one bit.
Of course, Zane and Garrett don't realize this and Zane's extra worried cause Ginevra is also appearing to his little sister Emma and asking him where "Emmy" is. The way they set this up, it's logical to suspect that the Gravemother's mistaking Emma for someone close to her, and as Zane and Garrett work together to solve the mystery, they end up becoming friends and together, they discover that the real culprit behind the kids' disappearance was Ginevra's husband Harrison and that one of the kids---Emmett---had actually survived. Turns out Ginevra and Harrison couldn't have kids and he grew insanely jealous that she loved the kids more than him and he killed her. Well, ya know, if you weren't a major toolbag, maybe she'd love ya more. Just a thought, dude.
I loved the nostalgia feel of the story and the references to the nineties with a Mr. Vink, I'd give this story a 9, and I can't wait for the second book in this series. And so, with that, I declare this meeting adjourned.
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