Wretched Waterpark

Wretched Waterpark
Kiersten White
Delacorte, 2022
232 pages
Grades 4-6
Mystery/Horror
The Sinister Summer Series #1

Fraternal twins Theo and Alexander relate the tale of their week spent at the waterpark, Fathoms of Fun. They are dropped off at Aunt Saffronia's house, of whom they have never met, with their older sister Wil and her best friend, cellphone Rodrigo. Aunt Saffonia has no idea how to care for children and has, literally, no food in the house. She drops the siblings off at the local waterpark with very little interest or instruction. The waterpark is not what they were expecting. The workers are creepy, the slides are dangerous, and the food is terrible--there are no churros! Strange encounters and events abound and, worse of all, both staff and customers seem to be disappearing. When their one friend, Edgar, disappears, the twins gets very concerned. Did he go the same route as his uncle who has been missing for a year? Edgar's aunt is horrible and seems to have sinister intentions. Theo finds a dusty old book that seems important. How is it connected and why do the villains seem to want it? When Wil goes missing, leaving her beloved Rodrigo behind, its time for desperate measures. Will the twins figure out the mystery of the disappearance of, well, pretty much everybody? And what exactly is the aunt up to?

First in a new series, White dishes up a mystery set in every kids favorite spot: a waterpark. This waterpark runs old-fashioned scary and is creepy from the first minute the kids arrive. Between the gothic feel, the intelligent humor, clever vocabulary and absurd situations the story felt influenced by Lemony Snicket. The plot reads like a ghost story with supernatural happenings afoot, but all is explained by human behavior, much like Scooby Doo. For a creepy mystery, the characters are developed. Even though the narration changes, readers will get to know Alexander and Theo, who are very different, yet compliment each other. Themes include family loyalty, cell phone addiction, finding your inner bravery, and the evil of greed. The action never stops and readers will keep turning pages to see what happens next. I figured out the mystery before the characters did and I will suspect young readers will as well, making them confident in their sleuthing skills. Although the waterpark is safe by book's end, dangling threads will lead the reader to the next series installment, Vampiric Vacation, out last month, with the third set for a January release.