Considering the book in it's entirety, I enjoyed reading it. Some parts were paced more slowly but it does pick up and I found myself wanting to know what happened next, not wanting to put it down. There were themes and feelings I could relate to, having experienced them myself. The Black Slide is difficult to read at times and I'm both glad and sad that those scenes exist were represented in the book. I'm glad that children can read this book, find it relatable and feel represented and sad that children experience these situations in the first place. I thought the concepts and plot line were really interesting and fun while also being wholly terrifying. It's a very imaginative and creative piece of work and I'd be interested in reading another book by J.W. Ocker.

Verdict: Imaginative alternate world filled with torture and terrifying creatures.

The black slide appeared on the playground of Osshua Elementary on a clear day in late September.
- first line

Griffin knows the new black slide on the playground is creepy. He notices his classmates go down the slide and don’t come out. But no one else seems suspicious. When Griffin’s best friend, Laila, goes down the slide, he has to follow her. It leads them to an alternate world called The Painful Place, populated by beings called the Merciless. This world is no Narnia. It’s dark and filled with pain & suffering.
The story is strange, imaginative, and like no middle-grade book I’ve read. It’s intense and scary - not for the fainthearted. It sort of reminded me of Stranger Things with mystifying creatures and a dark, terrifying alternate world (ala the Upside Down). I would recommend this to 5th grade and up, especially those who have read Goosebumps and are ready for something scarier.

J.W. Ocker is one of my new favourite kids authors! I love the mix of horror, suspense and relationship building in this book. It has a perfect level of all three.

A creepy black slide on a school playground? Sign me up! This book definitely brought a fresh new idea to the spooky/horror middle grade. Although it was slow at parts, I really loved the story, the characters, and the metal creatures/creepy world within the black slide. I do encourage checking the TW for this book before giving it a read, but I definitely recommend it!

3.5 stars ⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good spooky story that also had some emotional depth. Griffin's growth from being scared of everything to being able to show his bravery and strength plus his sweet friendship with Laila made this a more compelling story than your typical creepy adventure. Recommended for fans of creepy stories by authors like R.L. Stine or Neil Gaiman.

This book started off very strong and then got to a point of dragging plot near the middle. One night I stopped reading it and then I didn’t think about it until I got a notification that it was ready for review.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. While I think this was a fun read, it wasn't the best the middle grade horror has to offer. The plot if vaguely reminiscent of Stranger Things, in that there's some kind of other world. I think this will definitely appeal to younger middle grade readers.

The premise of the book, the fact that the author has won an Edgar Allan Poe award, and the comparisons to RL Stine and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark are what drew me to this book. A slide where kids disappear and no one seems concerned sounds terrifying. Perhaps I was not in the right mood for this book, or if I was a child instead of an adult, I may have enjoyed this book more. I found it dragged on, and I didn't really care about the characters that much. As a former public librarian and children's event planner, I have always loved following the horror genre for kids (as there hasn't been a lot of interest since the past couple of years), so I am glad this book is available for older kids (probably 4th grade to 7th grade).

Oofa doofa! This is the most disturbing middle grade story I have ever read. It was weird, creepy, and kind of graphic. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I'll be recommending it to students because of all this.

I really appreciate how much credit J. W Ockler gives middle grade readers. I know I have some middle schoolers who could handle this. no problem. But I also know some who will struggle with this. I think this would almost work better in a classroom or book club setting because of the darker subjects it tackles. It follows a group of kids who are transported to another world, aptly called the Painful Place, via a strange black slide. The things they experience are horrific. It is quite literal torture. I have to credit the author. This is like no horror I've ever read. But some of it felt needless. For example. it rains needles at one point, and we are graphically told how this hurts our child protagonists. I almost had to set my e-reader down. Also, never felt fully connected to the kids. I rooted for them, but only because they were innocent kids in a horrible situation. I wanted to learn more about what they were thinking and feeling.

Still. I can't really say I don't recommend this. I think there are some great themes of persevering and bravery, and a relatable side plot about abusive parenting. Still, I'm not sure this is enough to endure the trauma of the Painful Place.

I did not finish this book. I didn't get into the characters or the plot. It is a bit too elementary for my students. I will try another book by this author.

Scheduled to post 8/23/22.

THE BLACK SIDE is on the younger side of middle grade, the characters about nine-years-old and in fifth grade. I must have missed the elementary school part in the blurb. Not that I didn't know this was MG. I just didn't realize it was as young as it was. Thankfully, it didn't affect the reading any. In fact, I think the ages of the students are largely irrelevant when it comes to them being nine, ten, eleven, twelve. The voices were pretty fluid that way.

There's definitely a classical horror element to the storytelling. It actually reminded me of Stranger Things, especially when the kids got into the Painful Place and started walking around. It was basically an upside down world of our own, where there was a painground instead of a playground, and none of the creatures made sense to their normal world sensibilities.

I liked how the story led into the black slide and that whole world. How the focus was originally on the teacher, Mrs Pitts, and how she ended up being just a brick in the wall, as it were. I also really liked the notion that something as innocuous as a slide is what transports kids to another world to get tortured, basically. That adds a layer of creepy to it.

It was a fun read, but it didn't really resonate with me (and no, not just because it's a middle grade books there are plenty that do). I'm not too thrilled with how it tries to shoehorn child abuse into the storyline (and I don't mean by the Merciless). Like, it works with the plot, but it also tries to add a depth that feels disingenuous to the story. It just sat a little odd with me. 

The storytelling style was a little standoffish too. It kept the characters at a bit of a distance and prevented me from really immersing myself in the story and taking the ride with the kids. I wanted to be more involved in it, but the story wasn't letting me. It's kind of odd to explain, but there's just a narrative distance there.

THE BLACK SLIDE isn't a bad story. It's fun and creepy and does the trick for a scary tale. But it didn't blow my hair back.

3.5

I absolutely loved this read! I can't wait to share it with our fellow patrons.
I adored the authors ability to tell a story, It felt like I was truly there.

Cenobites visit middle school. The Black Slide by J.W. Ocker is a delightfully creepy story for middle grades, harkening to the dark and corrosive influences of Clive Barker and Bently Little.

I loved Ocker’s last book, The Smashed Man of Dread End, but this one did not work for me and was a DNF. That said, I will gladly read another book by this author in the future.

The Black Slide by J.W. Ocker has earned itself a place in my favorite middle-grade horror books of all time. Ocker himself describes it perfectly when he refers to it as "Hellraiser for kids."

There is something about the eerie black slide that appears in the playground of Griffin and Laila's school overnight that just isn't right. Griffin and Laila have been best friends practically since they were born. Griffin has always been a bit timid, making himself an easy target for school bullies, while Laila has always had a courageous streak and will always show up to Griffin's aid. When Griffin is dared (more like threatened) by the school bully, Ozzie, to go down the new creepy slide, Griffin unwittingly starts a chain reaction that will put not only him, but all of his classmates and possibly the entire world in grave danger.

Fellow students start disappearing the adults are acting as if nothing is out of the norm. When Laila herself is drawn down into the depths of the black slide, Griffin quickly follows. What they find on the other end is another world filled with horror and despair, and mysterious robotic creatures that have no mercy for any living thing that comes between them and their search for immortality.

With wholly unique world building, Ocker takes his readers on a journey that brims with suspense and terror. I absolutely loved this book and I can't wait for other's to have a chance to read this one in October!

Thank you so very much to Netgalley and HarperCollin's Children's Books for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This one took me a bit to get through; the storyline felt a little heavy at times and the visuals were pretty intense. This book touched on a different type of horror than I'm used to, more... torturous. J.W Ocker does a fantastic job of painting the creepy scenes into words on a page.

Some of the events in the book were a little drawn out, but maybe because they were so creepy and had me squirming! This book definitely pushes the boundaries of a middle grade read.

I have a 12 year old boy that I nanny for, and he was interested in reading The Black Slide himself!

Really wanted to like this book, and did from the start until Griffin went into the slide a second time. I get the friendship aspect, I wasn’t put off by the discussion of child abuse (kids need to know they aren’t alone in their awful situations) but this story both dragged on and jumped too fast. After Laila and Griffin entered the Painful Place (his second trip down the black slide) I couldn’t quite muster any enthusiasm for the storyline. I think I understand the underlying messages the author was going for. It just didn’t quite hit home the way I wanted it to.

My upper elementary students love scary stories. I love reading and recommending new stories to them, but The Black Slide won’t make the lending library, unfortunately.

School is not Griffin’s favorite place. He is in fifth grade and is in the torture chamber class. The teacher of this class is Miss Pitts who is perfectly fitted to the adjective for the class. The torture chamber is the only room that has a view of the playground, but you better not get caught gazing toward the window or the wrath of Miss Pitt will reign down. One day a tall, steep, black, tubular slide just appears on the playground. It looks ominous, but when a relentless enemy, Ozzie, promises to stop bullying Griffin if he goes down, he is the first to attempt the black gaping mouth of the slide. The misery of the unknown wins over the known torment of Ozzie. His experience is traumatic and leaves him with a broken arm, but at least he survived the strange and long decent into darkness. But his best friend, Laila and fifth-grade peers don’t fare as well. It seems the black slide is eating the fifth graders of the torture class one at a time. Griffin tosses aside his better judgment and follows them, but this time he lands in a gruesome, harsh world. This place is filled with hideous creatures that desire immortality and are using humans for their experimentation. His peers are locked in cages, tortured in the hopes they can be useful to the aptly named Merciless. Griffin teams up with his best friend, Laila and his nemeses, Ozzie to escape. The horrors of this world do not end with the Merciless, and success will require unimaginable pain, sacrifice, and endurance.

This book is a tale where The Maze Runner meets Stranger Things. Definitely, a horror book for the non-queasy reader. I felt Ocher pushed the boundaries of middle grade horror, and vividly described violence, torture, and casual cruelties. I was disturbed by the father’s abuse. However, Griffin is well-developed and slowly emerges as a hero. There is a happily ever after factor, but I can’t help but think an experience like this would leave lasting scars.

The concept of this book is incredible and I have no doubt teen readers will be fascinated by this story.

I thought it was decent... not my style but I love to read so I read it anyway... it is what it is.. thank you net galley for the free book I love it

While I love the concept of the story, it just didn’t work for me as a middle grade horror book. If this book was being marketed as adult horror and the characters were a bit older, then I would have given 4 stars. The world building was fantastic and I really enjoyed the relationship between the main character and his best friend, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with the violence and torture in a book for middle grade-age kids. I read a comment on Goodreads by the author about how he wanted to push the boundary and kids deserve more from their scary stories, and while I’m all for pushing boundaries and upping the scare factor in the MG/YA genres, this was a bit too much for me.

CW/TW: Child abuse, animal abuse, torture, and bullying

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.