Blurb

Eleven-year-old Jo loves Halloween and all things horror, but she doesn’t believe anything bad could ever happen in Fels, her small German hometown.

When Hektor, her annoying older brother, disappears on his way home from school, Jo assumes he is playing a prank on her. But then both her father and grandma forget Hektor’s name, and his stuff mysteriously disappears from his room.

With the adults of no help whatsoever, Jo starts an investigation of her own, uncovering an old legend that has haunted the children of Fels for centuries. A monster lives in the rye fields, and draws children into its world under the roots. With two days until the gate between their worlds closes, and only Hektor’s obnoxious best friend to help her, Jo must figure out a way to rescue her brother, or lose him forever.

Review

I did not read this as part of the BBYNA 2024 but if I had, I would definitely have scored it highly and it thoroughly deserved its place in the finals.

I have always loved fairy tales and grew up with the darker versions, so this book fed right into this. It is a superb modernisation of the darkness of fairy tales, although as Jo points out to Daniel, there must be some good things too…fairies, unicorns, true love!

The pacing was just right, as was the tension. The scenes in the field and cave were so well written that I got goosebumps. It is pitched perfectly at the target audience.

I was waiting for something else to happen as it was clear that the Rye Mother had unfinished business, so I am looking forward to reading the second book.

About BBYNA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 16 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads. 

About the book

Length: 167 Pages

Genre: Horror, Fantasy

Age Category: Middle Grade

Date Published: October 1, 2024

Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/89nNmA9  (Canada) https://a.co/d/0a9g9LQ (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/ab1XLfZ (UK) 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200334477-bad-grains 

StoryGraph : https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/d29b1104-4d4d-4e36-a676-e3d9f8a1e4ca