"Sometimes evil looks like a fuzzy teddy bear." How's that for an opening line?
Josh Leary is your typical ten-year-old. I live with one of those and I'd just like to say what a fine job writer J.H. Moncrieff did in capturing the spirit, the attitude, and the fears of such a child. Fears like..."how I was always sure someone was chasing me whenever I ran upstairs from the basement." Ha, that was me when I was a kid, but those fears never stopped me from watching scary movies in the dark and then calling upstairs to my mother, asking her to turn on the lights so I could go to bed.
When his step-father gives him a stuffed bear with the unlikely name of Edgar, Josh wants nothing to do with it. After all, what ten-year-old boy wants a toy bear to begin with. Plus, there's the fact that Josh doesn't really like the new man in his mother's life. Truthfully, I couldn't say who I found creepier, Edgar or Josh's step-father.
The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave preys on those childhood fears and manages to juggle the three potential threats in a way that kept me guessing to the very end. Is it really Edgar doing all these bad things, is it Josh's step-father making it look like Edgar, or is there something wrong with Josh himself.
Part of what I loved about this novella was Josh's friend Sean, not his best friend, but a good friend whose creative cursing was magnificent.
Although the idea of an evil teddy is not terribly new, and at times you could easily predict what might come next, the result still hits you in the face like a ton of bricks.
A terrifically fun read with kids on an adventure and an evil teddy to boot.
The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave is a terrifically fun read which I finished in one sitting and as a result I will add J.H. Moncrieff to my list of writers to watch.
The book is available now as an ebook from Samhain Horror and can be purchased through Amazon.com.
For a quick, fun, horror read you can't do much better that this one. Highly recommended.
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