The Black Slide

by J.W. Ocker, TBD (Read by), Ram n de Ocampo (Read by)

Overview

An ominous new slide on the playground leads to a world of fear in The Smashed Man of Dread End author J.W. Ocker’s latest middle grade horror, perfect for fans of R.L. Stine and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Griffin Birch isn’t known for being brave, but there’s something about the new black slide on the elementary school playground that’s made him curious. Against his better judgement, he just has to follow his best friend Laila down.

But the Black Slide is no ordinary piece of playground equipment. What Griffin and Laila find at the other end of this strange portal is a cruel world, populated by bloodthirsty creatures on a quest to become immortal.

And it’s up to Griffin to save himself, his best friend—and the future of earth itself.

Fans of classic horror will devour this creepy adventure packed with more twists and turns than the ominous black slide itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200975884
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Product dimensions:	5.78(w) x 5.53(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

J.W. Ocker is the USA Today bestselling and Lowell Thomas– and Edgar Award–winning author of macabre travelogues, spooky kids’ books, and horror novels. His books include Poe-Land, A Season with the Witch, Death and Douglas, and The Smashed Man of Dread End. J.W. Ocker lives in New Hampshire.

Editorial Reviews

08/15/2022

The sudden appearance of a mysterious black tube slide brings unease to the Osshua Elementary School playground, capitalizing on the fear of impending adolescence, in this genuinely bloodcurdling thriller by Ocker (The Smashed Man of Dread). When bully Ozzie Aldridge dares fifth grader Griffin Birch to be the first down the eerie Black Slide in exchange for a year’s reprieve from Ozzie’s torment, Griffin readily agrees, but upon entering the tube, feels like “something grabbed him by the ankles and yanked.” After falling for an indefinite duration (“The Black Slide was not this long. Not this long by a lot. And yet he kept sliding”), he experiences a “lifetime inside that darkness,” and finally emerges with an inexplicably broken arm. But that’s the least of Griffin’s concerns as his classmates begin disappearing at an increasingly alarming rate, including his best friend. While a seemingly singular focus on the sinister elements over character makes it occasionally difficult to connect with the cast, Ocker’s contemplative, metaphor-laden narration (“Griffin felt the inevitable next moment like a choking haze in the room”) lends pensiveness and gravitas to this dread-inducing novel. Ages 8–12. Agent: Alex Slater, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"A creepy horror novel that fans of Stranger Things will gravitate toward... A good choice for readers moving on from “Goosebumps” and in search of something to bridge the gap to YA horror."
— School Library Journal

"Ocker pushes the boundaries of middle grade horror... Griffin is well-developed and slowly comes into his own role as necessary hero, with vulnerability that adds some welcome depth to the horror framework." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"A genuinely bloodcurdling thriller... Dread-inducing." — Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Smashed Man of Dread End: "The imaginative and truly horrifying monster at its center makes this tale stand out." — Kirkus Reviews

"An eerie tale... readers of this effectively spine-tingling piece of horror will find it hard to ignore their own dark corners." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

08/01/2022

Gr 5 Up—A creepy horror novel that fans of Stranger Things will gravitate toward. When a large black slide suddenly appears on the playground just outside his fifth grade classroom window, Griffin Birch cannot stop staring out at it. Griffin wants nothing to do with the terrifying slide as his classmates start disappearing down it and no one seems to notice. Despite his fear, he follows his friend Laila down through the tube, and, instead off emerging on the playground, they land in a plane called the Painful Place. There, children are experimented on by white, chalky, metal-studded creatures. One of the scariest aspects is how the children in the Painful Place seem to succumb and accept the torture as inescapable. While the pacing occasionally drags, the author builds a vivid universe. Griffin and Laila's friendship is well developed, although there are flat secondary characters. This title may need a trigger warning for some, as Griffin goes through an experience that abruptly makes him relive being physically and psychologically abused by a parent. VERDICT A good choice for libraries where readers are moving on from "Goosebumps" and are in search of something to bridge the gap to YA horror.—Claire Covington

School Library Journal

2022-05-25
After a mysterious black tube slide appears at their school playground, kids start going missing.

If Griffin goes down the Black Slide, becoming the first kid to try it out, then bully Ozzie says he will lay off him for the rest of the year. The subsequent surreal, painful, too-long tumble through darkness drops Griffin in an alien world before he snaps back to reality with a broken arm and nightmares for his troubles. In the following days, fifth graders go missing at an alarming rate, their absences unnoticed by adults; two of them Griffin observes go down the Black Slide but never come out. Trying to prevent his hypnotized best friend, Laila, from going down it too, Griffin ends up taking his second trip with her, and they land in the Painful Place, a hard world of rock and metal where children are subjected to painful experiments by the sadomasochistic inhabitants. Accurately described in the acknowledgements as “Hellraiser for kids,” the descriptions focus on the way pain feels rather than physical injuries, and emotional pain is given equal weight. Griffin and Laila must find a way to escape and save their classmates in a plot packed with endless dangers and unexpected alliances. The “happy” ending shows the consequences of their ordeals before landing on a final stinger. Physical descriptors of the kids are absent.

An intense, disturbing read as likely to give nightmares as to become a new favorite. (Horror. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews