Misfit Mansion by Kay Davault
Reviewed By: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
Genre: Fantasy (graphic novel)
Suggested Age: Kids (7-12)
What is This Book About? Iris and her friends live in a “foster home for horrors,” including trolls, kelpies, and unicorns. She’s surrounded by friends who are all kept safe by Mr. Halloway’s rules to never leave the house, but she desperately wants to attend the local Harvest Festival in nearby Dead End Springs where “everyone is family.” When Mr. Halloway leaves to rescue a new horror, a local boy named Mathias accidentally breaks the house’s locking spell, releasing the horrors upon the town. The kids disguise themselves to explore the human world and make friends, but they don’t know that Mathias and his aunt are fierce paranormal hunters who wouldn’t mind ridding Dead End Springs of horrors for good.
My Review: This delightful book about fitting in and finding your people is sure to leave you with a smile on your face. Iris’ optimism is contagious, Kel is just the most precious gardening kelpie ever, and the rest of the horrors will make you want to move right in with them. Iris’ experiences as the only horror that Mr. Halloway was afraid of makes her stand out in a world where she was already shunned for being a horror in the first place. Davault mentions in an author’s note that this book is inspired by her experiences as an only child in a single-parent household, feeling like she doesn’t fit into the same mold as her friends and their “complete” two-parent households. She realized, as Ivy and the horrors do, that families come in all shapes and sizes. Readers will enjoy cute horrors, scary monsters, curious townsfolk, and an all-ages family drama.
Three Words that Describe this Book: hopeful, inclusive, family
Give This A Try if You Like… Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulson; The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag; The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill; The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill; TV shows She-Ra and The Owl House
Rating: 5/5
