The Dogs by Allan Stratton

Pages: 276
Intended Audience: Teens and mature tweens
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Notes for Parents: Some scenes of violence and tension may be too strong from sensitive readers.

The Back Cover

Out of the corner of my eye,
I catch something moving by the barn.
When I look, it disappears. Wait.
There it is again, at the cornfield.
Some movement, some thing.
Mom and I have been on the run for years.
Every time he catches up with us, we move to a new place and start over.
But this place is different.
This place is full of secrets. And they won’t leave me alone.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

Cameron and his mom have been on the run from his father for five years. They move to a small town and settle in an isolated farmhouse. That’s when Cameron starts to see and hear things. Soon he’s questioning everything, even his sanity.

What’s good?

Tension, secrets, and imminent danger make this haunting mystery a fast and engaging read. The story unfolds with a steady pace as teenager Cameron, the unreliable narrator, is filled with self-doubt but lets his curiosity set in motion a chain of events that will affect the entire town. A rundown farmhouse surrounded by cornfields is the perfectly disquieting setting for this suspense-filled tale. The writing is well-done, characterization is good, and the ending was unexpected (though, in retrospect, I feel like I should have seen it coming! Well played, Mr. Stratton. Well played).
Best Part: Great cover! It definitely sets the mood.

What isn’t good?

The set up was pretty formulaic. Cameron and his mom are on the run, they move to a small town, into an eerie farmhouse surrounded by cornfields. There’s a creepy neighbor, a school bully, and plenty of rumors that suggest the house was the site of some foul play. It was a fairly conventional scenario that offered nothing special. The secondary characters were never really explored, surprising especially with Jacky and Mr. Sinclair. But I suppose the simplicity of the story is part of the charm.
Worst part: The school bully was underutilized.

Recommendation þþþþo
It was unexpectedly good. Despite a multitude of suspense story clichés, I was still drawn into the mystery and felt easily compelled to see the story through to the end. Perhaps it was the heaviness that isn’t typical of this young adult genre – family violence, abuse, murder – that kept it dark without being creepy or gory. Either way, I read it with enthusiasm and felt a warm satisfaction with the ending. Recommended.

Stratton, Allan. The Dogs. Toronto: Scholastic, 2015. (Hardcover)