What a wonderfully unsettling little gem. Another might be labeled middle grade, but make no mistake—this is a chilling, emotionally resonant story that creeps under your skin and lingers long after the last page.

The story follows 12-year-old Casey, an isolated and anxious kid whose world shifts when a strange, mannequin-like boy named Morel appears. What begins as a mysterious encounter slowly turns into something darker, stranger, and harder to explain. Is Morel imaginary? Is he replacing Casey? And if so—how?

Tremblay masterfully builds quiet dread without needing gore or shocks. The fear here is existential: being forgotten, being replaced, not being seen. Casey’s voice is distinct and heartfelt, and the blend of narration and sketch-style drawings adds to the immersive, unsettling tone.

This book surprised me. It’s eerie, thoughtful, and just off-kilter enough to feel like a waking nightmare. A smart, spooky read perfect for fans of psychological horror with heart.

Wonderful middle grade horror novel. Although it’s marketed as middle grade, I enjoyed the book and it had some creepier elements. The idea of doppelgängers is terrifying.

Poor Casey is struggling in middle school and had to face those years during Covid. Now that he’s back to in person school things aren’t looking any better. A mysterious man with a mysterious “clay” boy appears on his doorstep. Morel, yes like the mushroom, is his new playmate for a week. Weirdly, his parents seem fine with this faceless creature taking up residence in their home and hanging out with their child. But aren’t they acting a bit strange? And what’s that fine layer of dust covering everything? And what’s with the ancient rotary phone?

Paul Tremblay is know.n for his ambiguous endings. You won’t find that here, but this was a great book. Really delving into education and all that happened during the COVID years.

Finished a NetGalley ARC of Another by Paul Tremblay today! The story follows a young boy named Casey who has been struggling since the onset of the COVID pandemic. His parents brings home an old rotary phone and they receive a call asking if Casey's mysterious "friend" can stay for an extended visit. This is a middle grade story and I think the target audience will have a lot of fun with it! I really enjoyed it myself and it was a very easy, quick read. I'd love to say more about why I liked it but I don't want to give anything away 🤐

Brief Synopsis:

Casey’s new friend, Morel, is a little strange. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t eat. He’s never played the Legend of Zelda. Oh, and his face seems to be sculpted from clay…literally. Still, a strange friend is better than no friend at all, right? What could possibly go wrong?

My Thoughts:

This middle grade novel is packed with heart. It’s creepy but never becomes too scary. There’s no violence, just the uncomfortable sensation of knowing something strange is going on and not being able to explain exactly what it is. Through the course of the story, Casey is learning to deal with his recent struggles with anxiety. He’s also adapting to the post-COVID style of schooling, in which his time is split between in-class and at-home learning. His sister, who Casey is close with, has just started college and recently moved out. So yeah, lots of changes are happening all around poor Casey, and he has no control over any of them.

Along comes Morel (a “friend” Casey has never met before) and strange changes start to take on a whole new meaning. The more time Casey spends with Morel, the less like himself he feels. Stranger yet, Morel seems to be becoming more and more like Casey. Casey’s inner turmoil over what defines his own identity is a central part of the story. Is he defined by the things that embarrass him? His artistic skills? His love for his family? I found these struggles to be highly relatable, and the notion that those central things that define us could be stolen…well, that’s just terrifying.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and feel it would appeal to middle graders and adults alike. If you’re a Tremblay fan, don’t go in expecting his usual disturbing ambiguous style. This is a middle grade novel and written accordingly. Preorder now or pick up a copy for your favorite spooky young reader on July 22!

Another by Paul Tremblay was SO creepy! I started reading it at night and ended up having nightmares 😅 I had to set it aside for a few days after that and then only read during the day.

The doppelgänger aspect really freaked me out! Not only was this book scary, it was also quite emotional!

The bond between Morel and Casey at the end was very bittersweet.

I’d be curious to see if it there is a sequel to this one!

Life hasn't been easy for Casey during and after the pandemic. His sister is away at college. He doesn't like playing on the baseball team. To make matters worse, Casey suffers from facial tics. He’s still reeling from the Zoom incident where a bully recorded Casey reading aloud during class with his facial tics and uploaded the video online. One day, Casey notices a rotary phone in their house - and his parents get a call from a strange man. The man wants to drop off his son, Morel at their house for a sleepover. Casey doesn't know who Morel is. When they arrive, Morel has face and body features similar to a mannequin - and from the jump, Casey knows something's not right.

Casey notices that Morel doesn't sleep. Morel doesn't eat. With each day, Casey feels weaker - and Casey's parents are treating like Morel is their son. Casey also notices a weblike substance at night -- that leads straight to Morel..

Middle graders looking for a step above R.L. Stine books will appreciate the creepy black and white illustrations that brings "Another" to life. I thought Casey felt realistic. The tension builds up well - and fans of the Horror genre will not be disappointed with Paul Tremblay's Middle Grade novel.

I am very excited to recommend this to my students. I’ve loved what I’ve read of Tremblay’s adult books and am excited for my students to get a chance.

On a surface level, this is a delightfully creepy book! I’ve read a lot of adult horror books that didn’t creep me out as much as this one did. Under the surface, it’s a really good book about a lot of insecurities that come from growing up, especially in a world post-Covid. I really liked how the creep factor of what happens to Casey is tied in with his fears and anxieties under the surface.

This is a really good middle-grade horror book! Mr Tremblay, if you read this, please write more!

An adequately eerie and frightening middle-grade book. Classic Tremblay. What's real? What's not? And all of the gray in-between.

soooo creepy. It gave me creepy Coraline energy that i didn't like but got sucked into. the use of fungus was well done too. I really enjoyed this! Def had it haunt me well after I finished.

Casey Wilson has been dealing with a lot of issues following a traumatic incident during the pandemic lockdown that resulted in cyberbullying. But his issues with self-esteem and confidence, with transient tic disorder, anxiety, and the mental processing skills necessary to break down larger issues into solvable smaller ones will pale in insignificance to what arrives when his family receives an unexpected visitor.

The call comes on a landline, an ancient, rotary phone his parents have kept for reasons even they cannot explain. A man on the other end asks if Casey’s friend can come by, and they agree because why not? However, the friend arrives in a burlap sack and turns out to be a clay mannequin that can move. Casey’s parents agree he can stay for the final days of summer, and that’s just the start of strangeness.

Morel is not a mean kid though he is certainly unusual. Morel cannot speak, has to draw his facial expressions on his clay head, and is burdened with plenty of rules: no food and no beds being chief among them. However, the longer he stays at Casey’s house, the more human he will become. And the more he changes, the more Casey and his parents will start to change as well.

Though this friend is not some kind of monster, Casey soon realizes that Morel is nevertheless a threat. Friends share, after all, so Morel seems to have no compunctions about borrowing things … including elements of Casey’s humanity. If he hopes to return his family to normalcy, Casey will have to understand what is happening and why, and he will have to hang on to everything that makes him Casey. Otherwise, the wrong boy may well be taken away when the strange man returns …

Paul Tremblay has made a career out of literary horror and speculative fiction works for adults. His forthcoming novel Another is a change of pace, an eerie shadow story written for middle-grade readers. It’s got all the strengths of his adult fictions—cool ideas, sympathetic characters, nods to influential works that came before, a terrific sense of creeping dread and atmosphere, and conflicts that avoid traditional “good versus evil” dichotomies, all delivered with some top notch prose. It also eschews some of the writing flourishes that adorn his adult fiction, paring the sentences down to simple story delivery vehicles. From the start, it’s an engaging delve into strangeness. While the author falls in love with some of the science behind fungi and other topics relating to his surreal and possibly supernatural intrusion (leading to a few too many uses of spelling bee words like hyphae), the book nevertheless gives its readership an enjoyably spooky read with real stakes and a few moments of authentic (age appropriate) terror. It’s the sort of book I look forward to handing to my daughter in a couple of years.

The book is one that grapples with the theme of identity by the very nature of its threat. Here we get a Kafkaesque narrative surrounding an unwanted metamorphosis triggered by unknown and (at least initially) seemingly unknowable forces. However, it’s a middle grade book, which means the character gets a fighting chance. Hope is never completely snuffed out; enough remains to keep us turning the pages. The story and its desperate finale might lend itself to a week’s worth of nightmares for the young and impressionable, but it’s not complete doom and despair.

Adult readers will also find plenty to enjoy in the pages. And Tremblay fans may see this as a younger reader flipside to the author’s novella In Bloom or some of the short fiction the author has written about growing things turning terrifying. Tremblay’s interests don’t always dive into horrors with a botanical origin, but there is certainly no shortage of them in his works. Another is one more example of this interest.

All told, Tremblay’s middle-grade offering delivers an eerie, surreal read that blurs the lines between the real and unreal in evocative and enjoyable ways. A shiver-inducing story that’s perfect for the target readership with an interest in creepy yarns about intersections between the known and unknown as well as readers of any age who enjoy an unsettling brush with the dark.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for allowing me to read this book early. The opinion in this review is my own.

Another was a creepy story about Casey who is dealing with anxiety while navigating through the pandemic. He is lonely and has a new friend coming over. The new friendship evolves into something more sinister as the days go on.

This was very creepy and made the hairs on my neck stand up. It’s unusual, unsettling, and uncanny. It feels like this generation's Coraline. I'm not used to reading middle-grade so I feel like my rating scale needs to adjust for the intended demographic.

I have no complaints. It was well written, the characters were fleshed out, the setting of the pandemic was a nice touch but it was just a backdrop and not too much. It was interesting to read about the pandemic from the POV of a young person. It had some heart to it and there is an underlying moral to the story. It's creepy but not too scary. I would definitely recommend this to middle-grade readers

This was such a fun middle grade horror! I was invested in Casey's story, and loved the family dynamics and the growth the parents exhibited throughout the story to show their true love for their son. Casey's relationship with his sister was so heartwarming.

Somehow this was one of the creepier things I've read lately, and it's a middle grade horror. I think it'll be a great read for anyone, but especially for the younger audience, who can relate to the loneliness of what school in the lockdown era during the pandemic was like. This book did a great job at diving into that, and was also a really great look at mental health struggles within the younger generation.

It was also, like I said, incredibly creepy. Some parts were genuinely unsettling and had me nervous for what was to come. I know I would have eaten this up as a kid, and I think Paul Tremblay should absolutely keep exploring middle grade horror.

Classic Tremblay: disorienting, eerie, and psychologically sharp. This one messes with perception in a big way—you’re never sure what’s real, who to trust, or if the horror is in the hallway or in the mind. Morel is deeply unsettling, and Casey’s unraveling is slow but painful to watch. If you like ambiguity, dread, and creeping madness, Another will scratch that itch…and then keep scratching.

Another is a stellar addition to Tremblay’s oeuvre and a standout in middle‑grade horror. It delivers a haunting, emotionally charged narrative about identity and family that lingers long after the final page. Younger readers ready for subtle scares will love it, and adult fans will appreciate Tremblay’s signature psychological depth—not to mention it might just give them goosebumps.

Middle grade horror might be where its at. This was such a fun and easy read but still creepy and unsettling. Very age appropriate but chilling. Feels like "baby's first psychological horror" with a side of rot. Captures the fear of being a kid and realizing your parents are just people, they cannot save you from everything. Interesting world with just enough unknown to leave you weirded out. I have gotta read Tremblay's other works after this. I do hope he does more middle grade stuff though, I think the weird kids are gonna love it (weird kids rise up!).

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

tw: depersonalization, parental neglect, if you don't like mushrooms or infections maybe sit this one out, pandemic mentions

Another by Paul Tremblay is a tense middle grade novel that never feels like it's talking down to its middle grade audience. The book follows Casey, who is eLearning online and has an unfortunate incident on Zoom, which leaves him with no friends. When his parents get a rotary phone and it rings, the person on the other line says they have a friend for Casey. However, when that friend shows up, he seems to be anything but a friend.

This book was riveting in every sense of the word. It has very similar creepiness to books like Goosebumps or The Thief of Always and I would have absolutely devoured this book when I was a child. That said, I do believe that young adults and adults would enjoy this book as well, specifically if you are a fan of Paul Tremblay.

Harper Collins Children's books
Another by Paul Temblay

Casey is a young 5th grader who has no friends at school and feels misunderstood by well..everyone. His parents worry about him so when a parent of " a friend of Casey " asks if it ok to come over to play , Casey's dad is thrilled and says yes! Never even wondering who it could be. Casey wonders. When a boy, or a thing looking like a blob of clay slightly resembling a boy shows up, Casey's parents still don't wonder , nor ask questions when the father informs that he doesn't eat or speak.
What follows is odd, strange but honestly a bit slow.
I don't think it would keep this ages attention as it didn't keep mine.

It's cute, not scary but has good creep value.

Famed horror writer Paul Tremblay takes on the middle-grade novel in Another.
Casey is doing hybrid school, especially since his physical tics started due to the stress from COVID. Not many of his friends visit, so he is surprised when his dad says he has someone coming for a sleepover. When he meets Morel, he is like no one Casey has ever met. The boy can’t talk. His skin seemed to be made of clay, and, in fact, it doesn’t even look like he has a face! But Casey’s parents act like nothing is weird and allow the boys to spend several nights together, and over that time, Casey sees that Morel begins to look a lot like him…
The basis of the story is great. There is a certain creepiness as you watch what Morel and Casey become. To fade away to the point where your parents don’t even know you (especially when you are lucky enough to be in a stable home) is terrifying. Or it can bring up trauma for those who have been taken from their parents (for good or bad, it doesn’t matter). But what I truly liked is that it took on the COVID pandemic from a kid’s perspective. How they felt anxiety, and how that might show up for them.
But here’s the thing. The story is too long and bloated. The key to keeping the younger reader’s attention is to keep them engaged. Passage of repetition and boring everyday stuff won’t do that. Cutting down pages to the most important info or giving more detail into the things the kids like (I’m not big on vomit, but they are) helps a lot. Overall, this shouldn’t have been 256 pages. If I was bored, I know middle-graders would be.
Another is a good story, but long in the tooth.

I received an ARC for review; all opinions are my own.

Just as creepy and quality as the other major middle grade horror classics. ‘Another’ would EAT as a stop motion animated film… I just got creeped out thinking about it actually. 4.5 stars.