Nightmares by Jason Segel (review)

Charlie Laird can’t sleep. Ever since his mother died and his father remarried and moved him and his little brother into the house of his stepmother, Charlotte, he’s been plagued by nightmares. His fear is enough to open a portal to the Netherworld in the tower room of Charlotte’s house. The open portal allows the sinister President Fear to freely come and go between the Netherworld and the Waking World, and he’s planning to overthrow the Waking World unless Charlie can face his fears. Braced by his three worthy friends and aided by some unexpected helpers in the Netherworld, Charlie braves its terrors and proves, once and for all, that facing your fears is a far better plan than running from them. While the plot has some unexpectedly deep symbolic resonances regarding the source of fear and the loss of faith in contemporary culture, this book also has all the classic elements of a benignly scary fantasy for middle-graders: a sympathetic protagonist, a dastardly villain, trusty friends, comical horror figures, a misunderstood benefactor, chase scenes, mild grossness, and explicit psychology. The deployment of these tropes is fresh, ranging from engagingly sad to funny; there are just enough imaginative hooks to induce some shivers, but the genre predictability of a happy outcome keeps things from being too scary, and spot art adds to the comic tone. Readers who shy away from celebrity authors will be pleasantly surprised by this solid entry from How I Met Your Mother’s Segel.