I mean- it’s about a house with a goddamned doomsday clock hidden in its walls! I found it frightening even now, reading it as an adult. I remember that, as a kid, the book scared the crap out of me.Rereading it now, I still wanted to zip through to find out what would happen. The whole novel is tremendously suspenseful.

And so neither the heroes nor the reader know when the clock will go off and cause the world to end. (The evil wizard who made and hid the clock cast a spell that causes the clock’s ticking to sound the same from inside every wall). The book’s protagonist, Lewis Barnavelt, along with his Uncle Jonathan, can hear the clock ticking all throughout their house, but they cannot find it. For one thing, it’s about a house with a goddamned clock in its walls! And not just any clock, but a doomsday clock that, when it goes off, will bring about the end of the world.

THwaCiIW is a Gothic horror novel for kids, and it’s genuinely spooky.

And it’s only appropriate that Rebekah should have given me a horror novel, because my nickname for her is “Ghost Mouth.” (Thanks, Ghost Mouth!)

I got my current copy of THwaCiIW from my friend Rebekah, last November, at her Friendsgiving party.

And it’s through these novels, I think, that I first learned about Edward Gorey. Actually, I first read John Bellairs’s novel The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978), which I picked it up because of its Gorey cover and illustrations. I first read this novel when I was a kid, checking it out from the library.

It seems that evil Selenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls - a clock that could obliterate humankind.Īs the clock can be heard ticking away in the house all the time, sometimes louder, sometimes quieter, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, it is up to the Barnavelts to find where it is hidden in the walls - and stop it. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Selenna Izard. What's not to like about seeing his uncle practise spells and eating Mrs Zimmermann's delicious cookies?Īt first, watching magic is enough. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbour, Mrs Zimmermann, are both witches! Lewis couldn't be happier. When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan, comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. Lewis Barnavelt doesn't have time on his side. The American classic - now a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, starring Cate Blanchett, Jack Black and Kyle MacLachlan

The house with clock in its walls book