The Bellwoods Game, Celia Krampien
The Bellwoods Game, Celia Krampien
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Bellwoods Game

Author: Celia Krampien

Narrator: Caitlin Kelly

Unabridged: 6 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/18/2023


Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller!

Perfect for fans of Doll Bones and Hocus Pocus, this “beautifully creepy” (Kirkus Reviews), highly illustrated middle grade novel follows a girl who hopes to fix her outcast status through a game in the haunted woods, only to discover that some legends shouldn’t be played with.

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it’s tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail’s ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow—or so the story goes.

Now that it’s Bailee’s year to play, she can finally find out what really happens. And legend has it the game’s winner gets a wish. Maybe, just maybe, if Bailee wins, she can go back to the way things used to be before her grandma got sick and everyone at school started hating her. But when the night begins, everything the kids thought they knew about the game—and each other—is challenged. One thing’s for sure: something sinister is at play…waiting for them all in the woods.

About Celia Krampien

Celia Krampien grew up in a house in the woods in a small town near Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. She studied illustration at Sheridan College and currently lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with her partner, a mischievous cat, and a nosy beagle. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Bellwoods Game and Remember Me, Daphne.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Madeline on July 04, 2023

This was so lovely. Petition to have illustrations in adult horror novels because that made it 100% eerier. I loved the lore of the woods and the game, combined with the very human sixth grade emotions that all the kids were going through. Also loved the emphasis on fears, stories, and imagination.......more

Goodreads review by Jade on November 12, 2023

7.00 on CAWPILE......more

Goodreads review by Sophia Dyer on July 13, 2023

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advance copy of this book, all opinions are my own. I loved this book! It definitely wasn't life changing in any way for me, as an adult, but this book was still so good. It takes place on Halloween night in a creepy, haunted forest, and the atmosphere was......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on October 12, 2023

A fantastic middle grade horror mystery perfect for #SpookySeason and fans of authors like Katherine Arden, Kenneth Opel or Laura Senf. Set in a small town where something evil lurks and every Halloween kids play a game to enter the forest, ring the bell and drive away the scary thing lurking there......more


Quotes

"Caitlin Kelly provides a spookily entertaining yet tender rendering of this middle-grade story about courage, friendship, and the power of stories. Every Halloween, Beckett Elementary’s sixth-grade students engage in the chillingly serious Bellwoods game. If they win, the town will be safe for a year; if not, a vengeful ghost will torment them all. In a clear, youthful voice, Kelly describes Bailee Heron, who courageously volunteers to play the game despite worries about her family and insecurity about her ability to succeed. Kelly skillfully shows Bailee’s character growth as she moves from tentative to confident, making heroic choices for her community, despite the cost to herself. Kelly’s portrayal of the genuinely creepy specter in the woods adds to the spine-tingling pleasure of this ghostly coming-of-age story."