The League of Beastly Dreadfuls Book 1

by Holly Grant

Overview

A creepy Victorian house, secretive aunties, and a great escape combine in this debut that is part Mysterious Benedict Society, part Roald Dahl, and all quirky, smart, hilarious storytelling. Join the League. . . .
 
Anastasia is a completely average almost-eleven-year-old. That is, UNTIL her parents die in a tragic vacuum-cleaner accident. UNTIL she’s rescued by two long-lost great-aunties. And UNTIL she’s taken to their delightful and, er, “authentic” Victorian home, St. Agony’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane. But something strange is going on at the asylum. Anastasia soon begins to suspect that her aunties are not who they say they are. So when she meets Ollie and Quentin, two mysterious brothers, the three join together to plot their great escape! BONUS: Includes an excerpt of Viola Snodgrass’s Etiquette Manual for the Prim and Proper Sort!
 
* “Concocting an eerie setting positively made for Unfortunate Events, Grant threads her narrative with direct addresses to Readers and delicious turns of phrase. . . . A yummy debut.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
 
“Just the right mix of humor, magic, maliciousness, and suspense.” —Booklist
 
“This adventure is filled with enough mystery and humor to keep readers wondering what will happen next. A solid debut reminiscent of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” —School Library Journal
 
“Wonderfully witty. It reminds me of Roald Dahl’s The Twits only in an insane asylum.” —Chris Grabenstein, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385370103
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/19/2016
Series:	League of Beastly Dreadfuls , #1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.56(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

HOLLY GRANT lives in Colorado with a clowder of cats and an eight-legged moth connoisseur named Matilda. She is a pancake eater of some renown. Visit Holly and get trailers, extras, and more at BeastlyDreadfuls.com

Editorial Reviews

[C]oncocting an eerie setting positively made for Unfortunate Events, Grant threads her narrative with direct addresses to Readers and delicious turns of phrase… A yummy debut.” 
—Kirkus Reviews, December 2014

From the Publisher

01/26/2015
Peculiarities abound inside Saint Agony’s Asylum, where “completely average almost-eleven-year-old” Anastasia McCrumpet is doomed to spend her days after her parents are allegedly hospitalized in a “freak vacuum-cleaning accident.” To escape her strange (and heretofore unknown) great-aunts Primrose and Prudence, who gnash their metal choppers at breakfast and lock her inside a musty old room at sundown, Anastasia explores the asylum’s cavernous halls seeking a way back to her hometown of Mooselick. First-time author Grant is gifted at immersing readers in her fantastical world, infused with comically absurd details like Anastasia’s grudge-holding “revenge-pooper” guinea pig and descriptions of her inhospitable new home, “as cold and clammy as an octopus hug.” As the first book in a planned series, this fanciful introduction to shapeshifters and shadow dwellers sets the tone for oddities to come while leaving some key questions unanswered. It’s clear that Anastasia is anything but average, and her adventures are just beginning as the book comes to a close. Finished art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. Author’s agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2015
Gr 3–6—Anastasia is completely average. She isn't remarkable in any way, except for having very dreadful things happen to her. After her parents die in a vacuum cleaner accident, two very old and previously unknown aunts, Prim and Prude, pick her up from school, drug her, and take her to the abandoned St. Agony's Asylum for the Criminally Insane. She is locked in her room at night, given mysterious lumps to eat (so she starts eating moths), and told not to go outside or she will be eaten by the Beast (not to mention the attack poodles). Anastasia soon suspects that these two ladies with sharp metal teeth are not truly her aunts, that the boy who wanders the hall wearing a birdcage is not an insane gardener, and that she is not safe if she remains in the old asylum. Riding the dumbwaiter through the many floors of the mansion, Anastasia discovers a ticklish shadow who's really the brother of the "gardener"; both boys were kidnapped by the evil sisters. Together Anastasia and the brothers Ollie and Quentin form the League of Beastly Dreadfuls and plan their escape, including making a sugar key, feeding Prim and Prude laxative chocolate, and using a sleeping drug in their tea. Madcap plots twists abound, which include shape-shifters, a hot air balloon ride, and a kindly school librarian named Miss Apple. This adventure is filled with enough mystery and humor to keep readers wondering what will happen next. A solid debut reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (HarperCollins).—Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

Narrator Rosalyn Landor’s purposefully pretentious English accent fits this campy horror story, which is heavy on narrative and listener asides. Anastasia learns of her parents’ tragic vacuum cleaner accident from her aunties, Prim and Prude. They whisk her away to their fortress-like home, the former St. Agony’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Landor creates a matter-of-fact Anastasia, while Prim and Prude’s voices are appropriately prim and prudish. When Anastasia seeks explanations for the spooky wailing (provided by sound effects) or the mysterious boy wearing a birdcage, her creepy aunties explain that it’s part of the “authentic Victorian experience.” Anastasia soon discovers that the said experience is a front for something beastly dreadful. This is the first in a planned series. L.T. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2015 - AudioFile

★ 2014-11-11
Two sinister spinsters spirit a seemingly ordinary fifth-grader away one day to a moldering former asylum, informing her that she's become an orphan and they are her great-aunts. Yeah, right."Now sit up straight and eat your Lumps." Locked into her room at night by "Aunts" Primrose and Prudence and fed only Mystery Lumps, Anastasia nearly succumbs to misery at first. But like her capable literary heroine, detective/veterinarian/artist Francie Dewdrop, she's made of sterner stuff—and is soon turning up startling clues, terrifying discoveries and, in the asylum's darker reaches, other young captives with decidedly peculiar abilities. Along with drawing most of her characters from Roald Dahl's casting company and concocting an eerie setting positively made for Unfortunate Events, Grant threads her narrative with direct addresses to Readers and delicious turns of phrase: "A pink-patterned carpet runner spooled down the steps like a monstrous spotty tongue." Not to mention multiple atmosphere-lightening references to Anastasia's "tragic flatulence" and the odd wade into the nearby bog to gather leeches for, ugh, nonmedicinal purposes. Anastasia herself displays a few quirks, such as a sudden appetite for moths. Despite revelations following a rescue by a pair of shape-changing allies, the author leaves at least one sequel's worth of unexplained puzzles. Portillo's frequent vignettes add a properly cobwebby Gothic look. A yummy debut, though readers with sensitive stomachs would be well-advised to check them at the door. (Fantasy. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews