Hair-Raising Tale: Review of The Unbelievably Scary Thing That Happened in Huggabie Falls by Adam Cece

The Unbelievably Scary Thing That Happened in Huggabie Falls by Adam Cece is the second instalment in the Huggabie Falls trilogy and as the title suggests is nothing short of spine-chilling.

Fast friends Kipp, Tobias and Cymphony return in the sequel to The Extremely Weird Thing That Happened in Huggabie Falls and once again find themselves in the midst of a sinister plot to disrupt their highly unusual home.

If you haven’t read the first book, then take a look at our review here.

In any case author Adam Cece who narrates the story, can’t help but interrupt every couple of pages to give you a bit of background, reprimand you or endlessly entertain with his quirky insights – it’s easy to believe that creating weird characters and plots comes naturally to him.

The story starts with Kipp, Tobias and Cymphony kicking back after resolving the problems they faced in the last book when unsurprisingly something unusual happens – a blood curdling scream rips through the Huggabie Falls Sanctuary for People Fleeing from Witches and Other Dangerous Flying Creatures. We quickly learn that the chef Froggin Fillibuster is closing up shop and running for the hills, understandably, as a two-metre-tall spider has taken up residence in his kitchen.

This is just the start of the hair-raising tale that takes readers to the House of Spooks where a secret lab is making sure that all the residents of Huggabie Falls are literally faced with their worst nightmare.

The friends can do little else but enlist the help of the reformed ‘bad guy’ Felonius Dark to help them get to the bottom of who is behind the appearance of monsters, evil Brussel Sprouts, vicious geese, bad poetry and a large number of other blood curdling things.

However, we all know it’s not easy to face your fears and can the friends really trust Felonius Dark?

The Unbelievably Scary Thing That Happened in Huggabie Falls is jam packed with colourful fun characters, many illustrated wonderfully by Andrew Weldon – invisible families, witches, sinister triplets and a pirate in denial – that are all undeniably weird and sometimes scary but that’s the wonderful thing about Huggabie Falls – as long as your intentions are good, you’re ok.

8+ readers who like a good laugh will read this in one sitting. It’s great for stretching little imaginations and parents will be hoping Adelaide author Adam Cece has many more books inside that very weird head of his – something tells me there’s plenty more laughs, weirdness and fun where this came from!

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Adam Cece lives in Adelaide. In 2017, he won the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing for The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls, Book 1 in the Huggabie Falls trilogy. The second instalment, The Unbelievably Scary Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls, was also published in 2018.

Andrew Weldon is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in the Age, the Big Issue, the Australian and the New Yorker. He has written and illustrated several children’s books including the Don’t Look Now series with Paul Jennings. Andrew lives in Melbourne.