It's Halloween every day in the town of Samhain-and not all the creepy residents are in costume.Playing with expectations in her fiction debut, Virnig transplants sixth grader Caleb Fisher and his recently widowed mom from Los Angeles to a Wisconsin town where, to crank up the tourism, residents and buildings are dressed up for Halloween all year round. But, as Caleb quickly discovers, some of the local vampires and witches are very convincing. Could they be real? The evidence remains ambiguous (at least until the climactic hullaballoo), but Caleb has help from enthusiastic classmate Tai Thompson, who's described as standing out from her "un-diverse" peers for being not only unusually small in stature and dressed as a fairy, but for having Asian and Caribbean heritage. Together they collect clues, dig into the town's tragic history, and, ultimately, expose a terrifying truth. The suspense and the amusingly eerie setting make effective hooks. So do both the developing friendship and an impulsive young protagonist whose emotional vulnerability in the wake of devastating family loss and sudden uprooting masks a streak of ingenuity that comes out not only in the clutch but all along in the inventive costumes he wears to school instead of the blandly conventional ones everyone else adopts. A twist at the suspiciously tidy tail end offers plenty of enticing potential for sequels.Thrills and chills in a gloriously goofy setting. (Light horror. 8-12)

Gr 4–7— In this spooky middle grade adventure, Caleb and his mom relocate to the town of Samhain, WI, where Halloween is always on full display. Costumes in school are expected, businesses are decked out with themed decor, and even the mayor's office keeps "vampire hours." But when his English teacher's fangs and fur seem a bit too real, and his next door neighbor brews potions and has a wand, Caleb begins to wonder if Samhain is hiding a dark secret. Thankfully, he can rely on his friend and classmate Tai to help unravel this mystery, and they research and test theories to ward off werewolves and witches. Their actions raise the suspicions of the mayor, and what follows is a race to expose the truth behind Samhain to the rest of the town before Caleb and Tai's efforts are undone. The book strikes a good balance of humor alongside the horror: Caleb's daily choice of punny costume (e.g., writing "Go Ceiling Go!" on his hoodie to become a "ceiling fan") was a regular feature, and Caleb and Tai's illustrated monster research manual was peppered with good-humored sniping between them. A nighttime escape from a giant in the town library and full moon encounters with werewolves bring tension, but the book never gets so intense as to scare off readers. This is a good read-alike for fans of Kory Merritt's No Place For Monsters . VERDICT A fun title to get into the hands of middle graders, especially ones who can't get enough of Halloween.— Michael Van Wambeke