Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

September 2024

• ISBN: 9781460760680
• ISBN 10: 1460760689
• Imprint: HarperCollins AU
• RRP: $19.99

Your fans of Stranger Things, Good Omens and Wednesday, any horror x comedy x side-serve of romance, are absolutely going to love this one. When I was asked to write the teaching notes I was not quite sure after reading the summary but honestly, reading it was a whole lot of fun, with just enough creepiness to keep you on the edge of your seat -or shopping trolley and the ideas just kept popping up. I was making notes as fast as I was reading this one!

Basically, the world has gone to hell in a handbasket since the opening up of multiple portals, all of which are a highway for demons of all kinds. On Portal Hell Day many lives were lost but also many people became ‘Doomies’ almost zombie like shadows of their former selves. They are regularly rounded up and kept in facilities, which purportedly are working to help them recover.

Jasper lost his family and his memory on that day but continues to live in his parents’ apartment and works at the Here For You Discount store (think cheap shop with the weirdest possible products!). The shop has a portal at the end of Aisle Nine, which every so often opens up and spews forth a demon such as a giant pink pom-pom keyring, which attempts to wreak havoc.

When this happens the shop goes into shutdown, and certain staff members, including Jasper along with special Vanguard agents wrassle whichever demon back into the portal or dispose of it, and all is sorted. Kyle Kwan is a junior Vanguard agent who seems to have some kind of antipathy towards Jasper. Yet he feels he somehow knows her.

As the narrative unfolds, these two (who indeed have history, pre Jasper’s memory loss) are thrown together more and more, and. together with an anonymous broadcaster, slowly they begin to uncover a huge conspiracy involving Vanguard, the authorities and those who want to control the new demon dystopia.

Their strange flashes of premonitions are so similar they both realise there must be more to them. There are lots of funky aspects in this one with Jasper’s adopted (nice) demon, Lara (cat-like in every sense), loads of black humour which definitely appealed to me, many biblical references which were thoughtful and interesting and some very memorable characters.

While I don’t know that it would be the first choice for a class novel, it would totally rock as a book club or reading circle choice. My teaching notes kept that slant in mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish and highly recommend it for readers from around 14 years upwards.

With the new Beetlejuice movie on the horizon along with the next instalments of Wednesday and Stranger Things, this genre will be in the spotlight, and I can see loads of potential for library displays with like titles and your quirkiest quasi-horror ideas. A big 5 😈😈😈😈😈 rating from me for your YA readers.