The House with a Clock in Its Walls

I was a scared kid. Reading spooky books like this masterpiece of middle grade horror let me experience fear in a safe, fun way.

When I saw the timid protagonist Lewis face his fears, it gave me the courage to face my own. Bellairs weaves a creepy mansion setting, zany yet lovable characters, creative magic, deft humor, genuine scares, and a mysteriously hidden clock ticking down to doomsday into a gorgeous tapestry. 

I first read this book because my grandmother lived around the corner from the author. The book is from 1973, but it resurged in popularity when a movie came out in 2018. Bellairs is great at creating characters who are utterly human and utterly odd. The book verges on the almost-too-scary when the main character, Lewis, opens a crypt and brings an evil witch back to life. Especially when the dead lady moves in across the street. Talk about shivers! Yikes. But it’s good. Very good.

Ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt, suddenly orphaned, is sent to live with his Uncle Jonathan at 100 High Street in New Zebedee, Michigan. There he finds himself in a hilltop mansion both odd and fascinating: among his discoveries are ancient coins, a secret passage behind a bookcase, and the fact that Uncle Jonathan is a warlock. The only bad news is that the weird and wonderful house holds a potentially world-ending secret inside its walls. Simultaneously warm and scary, this is my favorite haunted-house story of all time.

This book, which came out in 1973, was John Bellairs’ first novel for young readers (it remains his most popular) and featured a dozen shadowy illustrations by eventual Goth favorite Edward Gorey. In it, Lewis Barnavelt arrives at his uncle’s creepy-intriguing house and embarks on the sorts of adventures I think many kids wish for themselves: encounters with magic and the people who can work it; discoveries of clues and puzzles and mysterious books; evasions of danger; and the company of gentle grown-ups one leap beyond their parents. This book completely fired my imagination when my fifth-grade teacher read it… show more.