Puppets. They are in your wall. They will eat you. Om nom nom.

First up, thank you to the author for unlocking a new fear, puppets. I never was that afraid of them, especially not the fluffy kind. Dolls, yes, those are terrifying. Those puppets that ventriloquist use, heck yes. But fluffy puppets? Like the muppets? Sesame Street? Nah. But now? Fuck it. I am terrified. Thanks for the no sleep. Haha.

The action in this book starts right from the bat. Before we even settled in the story we see our MC lying in the dark of his grandpa’s apartment (he went missing a year ago) and something is making ripping sounds… and then there is a big puppet. Just staring at him. Getting closer. Is it a hallucination or did a puppet from our MC’s past come to life? I would have fucking ran btw. Well, as soon as that THING was gone out of the room. I would have definitely not done with the MC and his cousin, Brittany, did. Oh yes, let’s see how he managed to get in the walls. Oh hey, there is a lot of room in the walls. Oh yes, let’s explore. YEAH, heck no.

And so it begins and as the story continues things get more terrifying with each and every turn. Our MC has at least some grammes in his brain whereas his cousin is so infatuated with the show that these puppets came from (and I get that they were a big part of their childhood) that she just hops through it all like nothing is scary. Well, until they find out that the cute adorable blue puppet that they love has teeth. Yep. Level up the FUCK no meter.

But no, we are going deeper and deeper. Because we need to save grandpa (our MC) + we need to find that specific puppet because I lurve it (the cousin). The apartments were already part of the stage/studio that used to be here and things were messed up there, but well, wait until you see what is down there. Did I mention loops? Did I mention that in each level there is the same thing? And that even there you can get lost in the walls? Yes, sounds fun right? Oh, did I mention that we keep meeting new dolls each way? And get some fun nostalgic moments along with terrifying NOPE FUCK NOPE moments? Well, there you go. Seriously, this show sounded so much fun, I guess it was before the puppets grew hungry because some idiot did some dumb stuff. Yes. Classic trope there. Someone did something bad and now we are all fucked. Have fun.

And things get more and more scary as the story continues. The puppets are on the move. And then a lot more happens. I won’t tell you what, but I would recommend not sleeping to start. I absolutely loved how each time you think things cannot get worse.. they do. We are spiralling and it is a puppet of death spiral. I absolutely LOVED and was terrified like heck because of the twists that kept being thrown at us, especially the latter pages. I was utterly in shock. I was like, WAIT? WAIT? WHAT? NO? NOOOOOO? HECK NO!

And then the ending came along and well that was just the cherry on the top. Absolutely brilliance.

So, now we got the scary OH HECK NO stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the other things. I loved the nostalgia that everyone has (especially our MC and his cousin who practically grew up on the set and have fond memories of the people there), loved learning more about the show and the puppets along with how it all went horrifically bad, I loved how dedicated (well, maybe to the point of being dumb) the MC was to find his grandfather and hopes to save him. I loved that these elements were added, it wasn’t just oh hey we are all fucked and the puppets are alive, it was much more than that and it was fab!

Oh, and I normally don’t read the author’s notes/what comes after the story, but in this case I read them, I was hooked. I would recommend everyone to read those as well.

All in all, sorry for the amounts of fuck, but seriously, this book was just epic. Terrifying. Horrifying. Murderous. But oh yes, delicious as well. Perfect for Halloween!