Just So Stories

Penguin Australia

• August 2025
• ISBN: 9780241760741
• Imprint: Ladybird
• RRP: $19.99

If you happen to be one of the handful of people in the civilized world who hasn’t watched Wednesday (1 & 2), you will definitely want to read this ahead of your kids. That way, at least you’ll be up to speed and be able to converse intelligently and compare notes.

And for those of us of a certain age, who grew up with the work of the incomparable Charles Addams [who IMO invented Gothic humour] the continuation of the Addams Family tradition is pure joy. Each iteration has been a pleasure in its own way but the newest, with Wednesday in the forefront, has not only taken it to a new level, but also to a whole new audience and generation.

For all the legion of kiddos who have watched – and very likely re-watched and, probably like us, binged the second series with gusto- they will likewise eat this up. And for some, who are not usually readers, it will be a fabulous entrée to picking up a book that will truly engage them.

I think what I loved most about this is that it stayed true to the series. Wednesday is every bit as snarky in the novel as in the film and the characterisations of our favourites: Mortician and Gomez, Enid and Bianca, Hunter and Ajax and Principal Weems are also authentically represented.

I’m certainly not going to bang on about the plot because you know it already. When Wednesday has somewhat of a contretemps (haha!) at her regular school and is expelled, her parents send her to their old alma mater, Nevermore Academy, a school specifically for ‘outcasts’. Wednesday’s antipathy to this move makes her even snarkier than her usual self and in the course of her attendance at the school, she starts to recognise her psychic powers which are both disturbing but also helpful as she tries to uncover the dark mystery that threatens the town and school.

The monster is not the only mystery. Her parents’ own secrets about their past at Nevermore also rises as a spectre. The complications of the plot are wonderful and those faithful to the series will relish their written counterpart, as well as the portrayal of their favourite characters. And don’t forget, there’s also plenty of humour in here – exactly the variety we appreciate in this house.

Suffice to say that as soon as I had finished reading this, The Kid snatched it up for her own TBR pile (and she’s 20!) so you can be assured that this will by flying off your shelves like a bat out of hell. It gets a fully dark and macabre 5 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇rating from me for your kids upper primary onwards.

Charles Addams

Chas Addams ‘Movie Scream’, The New Yorker, 18 January 1947.