An enjoyable ghost story with eye-catching art. I found myself getting a bit bogged down by the sheer volume of text in this one (there was a considerable amount of it). Definitely worth reading, but I feel like if I'd had any familiarity with the story, or nostalgic connection to it, I might have enjoyed it a lot more.

All the Lovely Bad Ones is a thrilling tale about siblings staying with their grandma at her supposed haunted inn for the summer. In hopes to drum up more business for their grandma, Corey and Travis decide to play at being ghosts so the haunted inn rumors would start up again. Low and behold, they end up waking the actual ghosts who insist of wreaking havoc at the inn. Corey and Travis must work hard to solve the mystery of the ghosts and how they can help them move on to the beyond.

Definitely would say this is more upper Middle Grade/YA, but was an absolute enjoyable read with colorful artwork! Death and child abuse are never easy subjects, but the way in which it was handled in the story was very tasteful. I would definitely recommend this to upper middle/YA readers who are looking for something on the spooky side.

This really was such an awesome story. The illustrations were colorful and the story was eerie yet still cute in some way. I hadn’t read this book prior to now so this was my first exposure to it. I loved how the spirits were depicted and also how much growth the kids and adults both experienced throughout.

I think this is the perfect kid’s graphic novel for spooky season and I highly recommend it!

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's for the advanced copy in exchange for a fair review.

Travis and Corey are a brother and sister combo that are staying with their grandmother at her inn for the summer, as they have been kicked out of summer camp for good this time. When at the inn they discover it was once haunted, so the trouble makers of course set out to make the visitors once again believe it's haunted. What they don't know is that by pretending the inn is haunted, walking around and making things go bump in the night themselves, they accidently disturb the old resting ground of the real ghosts, who are awoken by Travis and Corey's misbehaviors. What follows are a series of scary ghost haunts and frights, that eventually lead to Travis and Corey discovering that the inn used to be a poor farm run by an even more evil brother and sister duo that killed (or caused the death of) many families that came to stay with them. Travis and Corey were tasked to find the book that housed the true poor farm records, accounting every death and cent hoarded, that would eventually lead to the ghosts that haunted the inn to finally be laid to rest.

While spooky and overall a great story, I couldn't help be feel like this story was so incredibly wordy and long. At only 167 pages this graphic novel was on the shorter side, but it took me twice as long to read than even a thicker book. Since this is an adaptation, I feel the adaptors stayed too close to original wording and kept everything the same, copy and pasting passages of text that could have been chopped out completely or even shrunken down. In a normal novel it makes sense to be reminded of tasks or objectives every other chapter or so, as you likely aren't reading the whole book in one sitting or there is at least some passage of time. However in the graphic novel adaptation, the way it is written, they are being reminded of the objective to get to the end every other page, which is excessive. This book is also written from Travis' point of view and the yellow boxes are his internal monologue, and that is very repetitive and quite honestly boring to read over and over again. They're not adding anything to the story. Overall, I was a little disappointed in this one. Hahn has had much better GN adaptations before.

All the Lovely Bad Ones is a cute and scary story about two siblings who spend the summer in Vermont at their grandmother's Inn. When they hear the rumors about the Inn being haunted, the trouble making siblings find an opportunity to play some pranks on the guests, but quickly discover they aren't they only trouble making kids around.

A few pages into the story, I felt like the writing seemed picked right out of an existing book. So I checked and discovered this is a graphic novel version of an older story by Mary Downing Hahn, who I haven't heard of until now, but I will definitely be looking into more of her books.

This version was illustrated and colored beautifully and I love how true to the original text the story is, as it seems the lines were pulled word for word from the original story. I think I myself would have gotten more out of the story from the original version, but still enjoyed this one none the less.

Thank you to NetGalley + Harper Collins for the review copy.

I really enjoyed the more dramatic moments in this book. The monochrome coloring of the night scenes and the intensity of the climax were particularly gripping as a reader. The backstory of why the inn is haunted added depth and nuance that I really didn’t expect from this book.

The living characters felt shallow, though. Some of them felt completely unnecessary to the book (most of the inn guests and staff). Even the two main characters, Travis and Corey, felt flat and lacked clear personalities and backstories.

My biggest confusion with this book from a teacher’s perspective: who is the intended audience? At first, the language seemed some cleaned up and wholesome (“rude noises” instead of “fart sounds,” etc.) that I imagined upper elementary school students reading this. Then the history of the inn is introduced, and that felt more appropriate for middle schoolers. In the climax of the story, the villain encourages the two main characters to do something that I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about in a classroom with students younger than 8th grade. By I know my former 8th grade students would have already lost interest by that point because of the cheesier language choices of the first act. Confusing.

I still found this to be a fun read for the spooky season, but I’m not sure which of my teacher friends I would actually recommend it to.

CW: this book contains mentions of death by suicide and child abuse. For being a graphic novel for younger readers, this book actually scared me! Hahn pulls together a wide range of characters ranging from strict grandmothers to ghost hunters to curious teenagers to solve the mystery of the ghosts at Fox Hill Inn. While Travis and Corey stay with their grandmother, a prank gets out of hand and wakes up the ghosts of Fox Hill, causing immense trouble for their grandmother's Bed and Breakfast. They'll have to find the true history of Fox Hill to banish the ghosts and save their family's business.

‘All the Lovely Bad Ones Graphic Novel’ by Mary Downing Hahn and adapted by Naomi Franquiz, Brittany Peer & Scott Peterson is a spooky graphic novel for young readers.

Travis and his sister Corey are troublemakers. After they get kicked out of their summer camp, they get sent to live with their aunt at her Inn in Vermont. When they learn there are stories about ghosts haunting the place, they can’t resist playing a prank to scare the guests and maybe drum up some business. What they don’t know is that their pranks will wake up some ancient evil. Now they have to figure out how to reverse what they’ve done.

I’ve read a few of these adaptations and they are all fairly well done. The stories are appropriately scary and the art is pretty decent. I enjoyed this story and especially the group of mischievous ghosts.

3.5 stars. Thank you netgalley for providing this arc. The art was very pretty and I liked the coloring. The story was good, but not my favorite. The characters were interesting and the mcs were likable. Cute/sad story! Good intro to children’s horror.

A big thanks to NetGalley and HaperCollins for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another Mary Downing Hahn, redone in a beautiful way. Now I just need Witch Catcher to get the same treatment.

All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hanh is a graphic novel rendition of the novel with the same title. Travis and his sister, Corey, can't resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they're spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little "haunting" of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to the inn, and business booms. But Travis and Corey soon find out that theirs aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill Inn. Their thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have stayed asleep. Can these siblings lay to rest the restless spirits they’ve disturbed?

The art is gorgeous. The vibes are spooky. Come on, it's a Mary Downing Hahn book. You can't go wrong!

This feels like strange feedback for a graphic novel, but this adaptation relied way too much on telling what was going on rather than showing through the illustrations. It was incredibly text-heavy, probably because it was trying to preserve the structure of the original novel, but I was hoping that it would make better use of the visual medium. Nothing against the quality of the illustrations themselves, I'm just not sure why we need an adaptation of a book that still relies so heavily on text to tell the reader what's happening in any given scene. I love the fact that graphic novels can do things with layout and imagery that text can't do, but this book didn't really take advantage of those opportunities, and as a result, the scary parts... weren't.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW

It’s been ages since I’ve read Juvenile horror (the last one being Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark), so picking this up, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. What I got was a fantastic ghost story with beautiful art that got surprisingly (but, I think, appropriately) dark. I won’t spoil anything, but the final confrontation had my jaw dropped.

The art is gorgeous. It’s consistently excellent, too–something I’ve noticed isn’t always the case in graphic novels (to no fault of the artist’s, of course. Poor art quality is typically a reflection of rushed deadlines or poor pay). The character designs are fantastic (the kids are all adorable), the colorwork is gorgeous, and I love the style and use of lineart. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share an excerpt, but the cover, included below, is accurate to the inside.

The illustrators are Naomi Franquiz, Brittany Peer, and Joamette Gil, who all absolutely knocked it out of the park. I’d love to see more horror graphic novels from them as a team in the future!

The ghost story elements are very American folklore, reminding me of ghost stories I’ve seen both as an adult in the horror space and heard as a kid at summer camp: wicked rich folk using their power and wealth to suppress poor folk, accompanied by all the resulting the bloodshed and tragedy.

What is especially vital about All the Lovely Bad Ones’ ghost story is the treatment of historical tragedy; the narrative urges acknowledgement of tragedy and honoring the dead, rather than profiting off of or making a spectacle of very real pain.

Ghost stories are about the past, but they’re about the future, too. In a digital age where it’s all too easy to make a spectacle of death and pain, it’s especially important for narratives to explore how to respect tragedies while honoring and acknowledging the dead.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I had such a blast with All the Lovely Bad Ones. I should read more juvenile horror, especially ghost stories–they’re where it’s at.

All the Lovely Bad Ones is a treat for middle-grade readers and adult readers alike who love Goosebumps or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Fans of the original story will love how the artists brought the characters to life (or conversely, unlife? undeath?).

Thank you to Clarion Books for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley. If you are interested in All the Lovely Bad Ones, it releases 15 August 2023. Find more information from the publishers, including preorder information. If possible, support indie bookshops by purchasing the novel from your local brick and mortar or from Bookshop.org!

I can't remember if I've read this particular story by Hahn before but it still felt like returning to my teenage years and greeting an old friend. I love the art style and the ghost of Ada creeped me out, I love her design. The story is spooky but also tugged at the heart strings once we dug deeper into the haunting. I was tearing up a bit towards the end. The story felt like it was missing something but I think that might be just what happens when a story is translated from one medium to another. Overall, teenage me would've loved this.

I have never read the original story. I honestly didn't even realize when I requested it that it was an adaption. But I did mostly enjoy All the Lovely Bad Ones. It's kind of a MG mix of Netflix's Locke & Key and Disney's Secret's of Sulphur Springs. Perfect for 'spooky season'. Be aware before providing it to children that it does contain strong topics such as death and child abuse.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Clarion Books for providing me with a review copy.

The graphic adaptation of All the Lovely Bad Ones enhances the original book in ways I didn’t expect. The art style lends toward those spooky moments, and the artist was able to capture expression wonderfully in the characters.

It’s a good spooky story, heartwarming in some ways. When Travis and Corey accidentally awaken ghosts that really haunt their grandmother’s bed and breakfast, they’re not sure what to do. They’re weren’t even sure they believed, but the Lovely Bad Ones convinced them. And convinced them to help. But the evil is strong, stronger than they thought, and in life was a clever woman. Helping might cost them everything.

I’ve been LOVING all these graphic novel adaptations of Hahn’s middle-grade horror stories. Haunted houses, creepy dolls, children in peril! They’re genuine scares for the tween-ish age group, with great pacing, well-developed characters, and terrible things without gore.

In this book, twins Travis and Corey decide to do some pranking at their grandmother’s quaint inn. There’s been rumors that it’s haunted, and it’s time to give those rumors some strength.

Unfortunately, by pretending to be ghosts, the twins have given some strength to something else. And they soon learn the true history of the inn, and why the Lovely Bad Ones are the LEAST of their problems.

Maybe don’t let your kid read this right before bed. Or when you’re vacationing at a lovely bed and breakfast. Or do. Sometimes, they need a good scare.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

I have been a fan of Scott Peterson's work since he was an editor for DC in the 1990s. All the Lovely Bad Ones sets strong notes with characterization and mood from the get-go. The story is engaging for young readers and graphic in the visual sense, providing just enough fright for a broad audience.

Travis and his sister Corey have been kicked out of their usual summer camp because they are renown tricksters. So, this summer, they have been sent to spend some time with their grandmother and lend a helping hand at her Inn. The Inn and area are lovely and picturesque, but it's not long until the siblings discover the haunted history of the place. Determined to have some fun and maybe drum up some additional business, Travis and Corey stage a few "hauntings" of their own. They didn't plan on awaking the real supernatural presences of the Inn...

Mary Downing Hahn, RL Stine, and Lois Duncan were my childhood entrance to horror and spooky stories. I am so happy to have the opportunity to reread Mary's work in graphic novel form! I feel like this is how her novels should have always appeared! The stunning artwork really adds to the story. 'Wait Till Helen Comes' was just great and 'All the Lovely Bad Ones' is just as wonderful. Even as an adult now, this graphic still gave me goosebumps. Wonderful novel! I hope to see more graphic editions in the future.

All the Lovely Bad Ones Graphic Novel by Mary Downing Hahn
Release Date August 15, 2023
Publisher Harper Collins Children’s

This is a well written book by an author who knows how to tell a story about mischievous siblings who will do whatever it takes to convince people that their grandmothers Inn is haunted and while doing so envoys the true ghost’s that dwell within. Now they must find a way to put the ghouls that they have awoken to rest…..But can they?

I enjoyed reading this younger adult novel and found myself getting into the story myself. This one will cross over from one reading level to another with out any problems at all.

4/5 stars


Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Honest review from my 10 year old daughter:

Loved the illustrations and the whole vibe of the book. Great read and will definitely read more from the author.