Synopsis

Pina is excited to attend her first ever sleepaway camp with her best friend, Jo. At Camp Clear Skies, Pina can escape her controlling parents and work on becoming Pina 2.0, who doesn’t need Jo’s constant protection.

But Camp Clear Skies has a big secret. One day, Pina, Jo, and their new friends stumble upon the Glade—a fungus-infested clearing deep in the woods. When the friends fall asleep in the Glade, they all enter the same dream, where they can each be and do anything they want.

The Glade seems like innocent fun at first, but then parts of the friends’ dreams start to cross over into the waking world. And when Jo goes into the Glade and comes back…changed, Pina is certain there is something sinister going on. It will take all of Pina’s strength, and the loyalty of her friends, to save Jo from the Glade.

Review

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I haven’t been reading enough middle grade lately. The Glade reminded me why I love this genre. It’s a horror novel that deals with some dark real-world themes; but it’s also funny, sweet, and imbued with a deep understanding of the minds, hearts, and lives of kids. Pina is an anxious nerd who I felt a deep connection to, and her friendship with Jo was refreshingly complex. Rather than the friend-betrayal trope that proliferates in middle grade, they have a deep love that overcomes their issues with codependency and misunderstanding.

The Glade itself is a dark, fungal-infested dream world that feeds off kids’ desires and insecurities. It is a terrifying and wildly creative way of exploring tween identity and the real problems kids deal with in society and at home.

[Mild spoiler] I’m glad that the novel’s ending acknowledged the trauma that the kids had after their experiences with the Glade while also remaining hopeful and uplifting. While one of my favorite aspects of middle grade is its hopeful endings, that sometimes means skirting around the lasting consequences of the wild things that happen to these kids (especially in fantasy novels). The Glade does an excellent job balancing these contradicting elements.

A delicious page-turner with incredibly creative horror and fantasy elements and fascinating worldbuilding, The Glade is also a moving exploration of anxiety, identity, and the issues kids face that no one wants to talk about. I can’t recommend it enough!

The Glade is out on May 27, 2025!