No Place for Monsters by Kory Merritt (review)

Levi is still getting used to his new middle school after his parents separate and he moves with his mother and two sisters, and he mostly just passively watches the world going by. Perhaps it is those observation skills that help him remember his little sister, however, when she suddenly disappears and no one seems to know she ever existed. Such disappearances are happening all over town, and Levi and his classmate Kat quickly stumble onto an entire underworld of nightmarish monsters, the worst of whom is stealing children and erasing their loved ones' memories. Levi and Kat make a heartbreakingly great team, considering one of them won't emerge out of the underworld, and the other won't remember that their friend ever lived. It's an intense note for a middle grades novel, but so many children are saved by that powerful act of self-sacrifice (made in a moment when it was abundantly clear that all was nearly lost for everyone) that it at least seems necessary, if tragic. Detailed, vivid illustrations are essential, moving the story forward between the text. The monsters are tortured shapes, all angles, bones, and shadows, while the world above, filled with cranky adults and oblivious townsfolk, doesn't fare much better. It's a grim world all around, but at least there are moments of brightness, as when Levi and his sister, reunited, rekindle their deep connection that was lost in the move. Sometimes monsters and darkness abound, but it is enough to have one person that you know has your back.