I enjoyed this folktale style, ghost story, graphic novel. It was told well, the illustrations were great, and the author kept me engaged throughout.

I like that it was a darker graphic novel and I love the cover, that doll is creepy.

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

This graphic novel faithfully follows the story of the original, so I have tweaked my review of the original.

When Daniel's father loses his corporate job in Connecticut, his family decides to move to rural West Virginia where the cost of living will be lower. Neither Daniel or his younger sister Erica are thrilled with this, especially when the children at school make fun of their east coast ways and also the fact that they have moved into a "creepy" house. Erica spends a lot of time talking to her doll, Little Erica, and the parents have trouble finding jobs. Daniel is in a bad mood, and when he gets picked on and children torment him about the disappearance of a young girl, Selene, years ago, he decides to investigate. With the help of Brody, a local who is at least sympathetic, he finds Old Auntie's house on the top of the hill. It has been abandoned, but Brody claims that at night Old Auntie, a conjure woman, reappears with her nightmare, skeleton hog, Bloody Bones. Erica retreats further and further into herself, talking to her doll, and after a fight with Daniel, disappears into the woods. No one believes Daniel that she has been taken by a creepy spirit, but when he manages to bring back a dirty and disheveled Selene, the O'Neill's recognize her as their daughter's friend who disappeared fifty years ago. Daniel is afraid that Old Auntie will keep Erica for fifty years, so he tries everything he can to rescue her, but he is up against powerful magic and powerful evil.

Erica undergoes a dramatic change once they move. The parents are too caught up in their own misery at moving and working unstaisfying jobs that they don't seem to notice at all. Daniel knows there is a problem, based on what he is seeing, but is he really imagining it? He doubts himself, and thinks that Erica is just making up things like hearing voices.

The West Virginian setting also unsettles Daniel by introducing him to local legends and history unlike anything he has ever encountered in his life in Connecticut. The fact that most of the students don't accept him gives him few allies to back him up, but relying on Brody, as well as the O'Neills and a kindly bus driver (who once again made the story for me), gives him just enough information and support to save his sister. The graphic novel is a much more unflattering and unsympathetic view of West Virginia.

I much prefer Hahn's Deep and Dark and Dangerous or All the Lovely Bad Ones,or the newer The Girl in the Locked Room, and would have liked to see those recieve graphic novel treatment before Took. The drawings of Bloody Bones and the witch are unsettlingly, but not in a good way. The color palette seemed at odds with the story, and the drawings weren't in a style that I particularly enjoyed.

My students seem to prefer original graphic novels to retellings, with the notable exception of the Stormbreaker and The Lightning Thief graphic novels, but it's good to see more genres represented in this format.

3 stars. Thank you Netgalley for the arc! I think this was a decent adaptation of the novel but ultimately doesn't do it justice. The creepy and unsettling atmosphere you get when reading the novel doesn't quite come through in the graphic adaptation. I would still recommend especially for younger readers who are just getting a taste for the horror genre.

Spooky, mysterious, and a bit sad. This book may give you a fear of the woods and dolls.

Daniel, his parents, and younger sister Erica are moving from Connecticut to West Virginia. They move into a shabby run-down old house next to very creep-looking woods. School is a nightmare, the kids don't like Daniel and Erica and they taunt them with stories about a girl named Selene who went missing from their house about 50 years ago. The children are miserable, the parents too. But Erica is acting strange now. She is talking to her doll and going out into the woods that scare her. One day she goes off into the woods alone and doesn't come back. Now it's up to Daniel to find her and bring her back.

So to begin. I think it is super important to express that I never read the original book. So I went into this book completely new to the story. I'm familiar with Hahn's work though and generally enjoy it. This story was enjoyable. It had some pretty creepy moments. It certainly plays well on the fear of dolls and dark woods. For those who read the original story, I can see them really enjoying it come to life in this graphic novel.

I had a few minor issues. One is that it was a bit more violent than I would expect from a children's book. The mother smoking was also something I didn't like seeing in a children's book. While the art was certainly better than anything I could pull off, and I mean no disrespect to the illustrator, I'll admit that the style just wasn't my cup of tea.

In all, it was a fun read. I would recommend that readers be 13+. As a mother of a 10-year-old, I would not let my child read this book for at least a few more years. I would recommend to parents to read it first and then decide if you think it is appropriate for your child.

*Content Warnings* Mild emotional and physical abuse as well as some neglect. Mother smokes to 'calm her nerves'

What seems at first to be quite formulaic – family downsize to a shit-hole in the woods, where a witchlike boogeywoman is waiting to snatch the girl of the family – is enlivened when a past snatchee gets left behind as a result. The girl, no longer of interest to the witch, is therefore a rare and welcome character – the fallout of the supernatural. Yes, normally in a ghost story we see the effect they have on the living who see them, but not the long-term psychological harm of decades' enslavement, and the usual folklore look at the changeling is quite turned on its head. The other characters are a bit too thickly drawn for us to worry too much how the people and the community react to the long-gone girl's return, but not to the detriment of the piece, which just about manages to be distinctive enough, despite the familiarity so much of the beginning had. Another thing – the creators here took a mere seven years to rush their adaptation of the original novel into graphic form, and that lack of urgency is also telling that this is no wonder of the modern world. It's still readable, though – three and a half stars.

Took is a visually inviting graphic novel. While I am not always a fan of horror fiction, I really liked the storytelling made possible by this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I remember reading Mary Downing Hahn books when I was younger, The Doll in the Garden was always my favourite. While I did not read the book this graphic novel comes from, I enjoyed it nonetheless. It had an interesting storyline and the art matched the story well.