Title: Serafina and the Black Cloak
Author: Robert Beatty
Pages: 293
Finished: February 25, 2019
First Sentence: Serafina opened her eyes and scanned the darkened workshop, looking for any rats stupid enough to come into her territory while she slept.
Summary: Serafina and her father secretly live in the basement of the Biltmore Estate where her father works as the handyman. Serafina creeps around the place at night, catching rats until one night, a man in a black cloak comes down with a girl. His cloak absorbs the girl in some way and it's up to Serafina to figure out what happened and how to get the girl and all the other missing children back.
Thoughts: New Caudill List in Illinois came out, and this one looked like it was right up my alley. One of the interesting things about reading middle grade fiction as an adult is that things are often more obvious than they are in adult literature. I had Serafina figured out almost entirely by page six, and I had pegged the bad guy the minute we met him even though there were plenty of red herrings. My favorite part of this novel was the friendship between Serafina and the young Biltmore kid. I will read all the books in the series just for their relationship. The book was also super creepy. Enough that I stopped reading it at night. I think it's a solid addition in middle grade horror though.
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