By Jeremy De Quidt (author)
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In a Nutshell: Sinister short stories
Sublimely spine-tingling, this evokes all the dread of an ominous tap-tap-tapping on your door in the dead of night.
Picture this. You rush to catch your usual train but your relief at making it in time shifts to unease when you realise that it’s eerily empty. Your journey is only supposed to be three stops, but it’s taking too long and the route is unfamiliar. You seize an opportunity to disembark, but wonder how you’ll get home from this deserted station.
Then a man appears, with his dog, carrying a glass lantern. He offers to tell you stories to pass time while you await another train. At least there is another train, you think. And then the stranger starts to tell his stories, and a Pandora’s box of paranoia is unleashed. What’s common to each of the old man’s tales is an aching sense of alienation, helplessness, and feeling trapped (I think Babysitting hit me hardest, though it’s impossible to choose – more on that in a moment…), with uncomfortable interludes between the boy and the storyteller adding to the novel’s tension (amusingly, the boy is as irritated as he is afraid).
All he wants to do is go home, but he’s trapped in the stranger’s game and the train won't come until he chooses his favourite story. “What’s real is what we believe,” says the storyteller. Heaven help the listener who believes these stories to be true…
The writing is taut, electric as exposed wiring, and conjures an exquisitely vivid sense of dread. Masterfully macabre, this comes highly recommended for fans of Chris Priestly's chilling Uncle Montague stories, or Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. ~ Joanne Owen
Imagine youve just managed to catch your train and you realise its the wrong oneyoud be annoyed of course, but not scared... yet. Imagine you get off the wrong train at the next station hoping to catch a train going back the way you came, but the station is empty. Again youd be annoyed, but not scared... yet.
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Imagine someone comes to the station, someone who starts to tell you stories to help you pass the time, but these arent any old stories... Scared yet? You will be.
Praise for Jeremy de Quidt:
“Pacy, exciting and inventive” - Guardian
“Thrilling, dark and exciting” - The Bookseller
Jeremy de Quidt’s first book, The Toymaker (2008), was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. His second, The Feathered Man (2012), was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. When not writing dark stories best read late at night, Jeremy enjoys being a Ceremony Officer, presiding over the marriage ceremonies of many a happy couple. He lives in Somerset with his wife and their three children.
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Imagine youve just managed to catch your train and you realise its the wrong oneyoud be annoyed of course, but not scared... yet. Imagine you get off the wrong train at the next station hoping to catch a train going back the way you came, but the station is empty.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Wrong Train and determined it is suitable for children aged 11-14 years old
The Wrong Train features in the following genres: Books Reviewed by our Reader Review Panels, Recommendations, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Short Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommended Children's eBooks, Featured Books for 13+ readers
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
The Wrong Train was written by Jeremy De Quidt and published by David Fickling Books
The Wrong Train has 212 pages
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