The Creepening of Dogwood House - Review and Blog Tour

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The book flowed beautifully. I have been obsessed with anything written by Eden Royce since Root Magic came out a few years back. There is something so beautiful about weaving in folklore, folklore that are painful historical stories, and doing it good enough that students don't get freaked out or turned off by the description. Students were always asking me for spooky, creepy, eerie, you name it - and The Creepening of Dogwood House was SPOOKY for sure. As someone who has experienced painful grief as an adult, the way Roddie's grief is portrayed so realistically, I found myself feeling his feelings so deeply. I found myself going back to my childhood so much with being so curious about houses that were old or abandoned and how they always had a story. Sometimes that story was paranormal and completely made up, similar to Dogwood House. 

Overall - I would highly recommend to those upper middle grade classrooms, for students who love history, heritage, spooky, or just a well written plot with growing characters. 

"Gotta keep pushing through the dark, baby. Keep going no matter what."

The Walter Award Honor–winning author of Root Magic returns with a terrifying story in the Southern Gothic tradition, inspired by the hoodoo practice of hair burning.

At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. Before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too.

Aunt Angie has returned to South Carolina to take care of Roddie and reconnect with their family’s hoodoo roots. Roddie, however, can’t help but feel lost. His mom had never told him anything about hoodoo, Dogwood House, or their family. And as they set about fixing the house up, Roddie discovers that there is even more his mother never said. Like why she left home when she was seventeen, never to return. Or why she insisted Aunt Angie always wear her hair in locs. Or what she knew of the strange secrets hidden deep within Dogwood House—secrets that have awoken again, and are reaching out to Roddie…

"Eden Royce's thriller has all the earmarks of a classic haunted house tale paired with deeply-woven family traditions centered on hoodoo and Black hair. While the horror plot will keep you turning the pages, it's the emotional story of grief and family healing that will have you cheering at the end." — Tracey Baptiste, New York Times-bestselling author of The Jumbies

"Royce’s latest offers readers a strong, character-centered, hoodoo-infused narrative that’s a tribute to the beauty of Black hair. Richly detailed settings 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." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"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." — Publishers Weekly

"Royce offers up 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." — Booklist

 

About the Author

Eden Royce is a writer from Charleston, SC, now living in the Garden of England. Her debut novel, Root Magic, was a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, an ALA Notable Children’s Book, a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner, and a Nebula Award Finalist for outstanding children’s literature. Her latest book, The Creepening of Dogwood House is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Find her online at edenroyce.com. 

THE CREEPENING OF DOGWOOD HOUSE BLOG TOUR

July 30 Nerdy Book Club @nerdybookclub

August 1 A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust @bethshaum

August 1 B. Sharise Moore @b.sharise

August 7 Cassie Thomas @teachers_read

August 10 Jason DeHart, Words Images Worlds @wordsimagesworlds

August 14 LitCoach Lou @LitcoachLou

August 14 Katy Kramp @alibrarymama