JUNIPER BERRY

Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry appears to have the perfect life. Her parents are superstar actors. She lives in a mansion behind gilded gates. She has servants and tutors and even the perfect dog, Kitty. However, her parents mostly ignore her...but it wasn't always that way. She remembers playing in the snow and trips to New York and a time when they'd never have allowed her to play outside in the rain. Juniper watches the world through her various lenses, binoculars and telescopes searching for the truth, until she meets Giles in the woods behind her house. He's looking for the tree his parents disappeared into. His parents have changed too, and he's sure that what's inside that tree is to blame. Juniper follows her parents into the night, and, sure enough, they too disappear into a particularly nasty, twisted tree. When she and Giles mount an expedition, what they find might be the answer to their dreams or the embodiment of their worst nightmares. The cowled figure Skeksyl offers each their fondest wish, but at a price. Can Juniper resist? Can she save her parents? Kozlowsky's Coraline-scented debut is a slow-out-of-the-gate creepy horror tale with an intricately engineered ending so perfect it cloys. Juniper tries for pluck but barely achieves interesting. Best left for only the most voracious chiller fans. (Horror. 9-12)