Take Your Turn, Teddy - Evil Preying upon Childhood Trauma
Take Your Turn, Teddy is an absolutely stellar horror novel. There are seemingly some fun nods to existing horror like Halloween and Stranger Things with character names like "Laurie," "Strode," and a young boy with the last name "Byers." I enjoyed making those little connections, but they were tiny in comparison to the big picture.
Haley Newlin's intricate, emotional, and dark narrative is all about a young boy named Teddy, but really it's about all the children (and adults) in the world who have ever experienced ever-present shadows in their lives. The story follows Teddy and his experience with his parents, including an unfaithful and sometimes violent father. When his mother decides to remove herself and Teddy from their situation, a break happens and darkness floods in, turning the story from a real-life and all-too-frequent situation into something supernaturally terrifying. The book reads like an emotional non-fiction about broken homes and how they affect children, and then it turns evil and frightening, and finally ends in the vein of true crime. Haley Newlin knows how to write childhood experiences and pain with a sharp and colorful pen, and the reader is given some insight into why she is so familiar with this topic when reading the "Note from the Author."
The hardest-hitting part of the book for me was the relationship between Teddy and his tender mother. I ached so much for both of them. Newlin described her in such a vivid and ethereal way and connected Teddy's feelings with her in such a moving manner, "The orange color of her hair, along with the yellow counter and pastels of the floral wallpaper, reminded him of the poppy field Dorothy and her loyal band of misfits skipped through on their way to Oz. Teddy's smile faded. That field was poisonous. Teddy started to wonder if, like the field, his home was beautiful but truly carried a plan of deceit."
I honestly can't say enough about how visceral and realistic Teddy's childhood home and family unit felt to me. His mother humming "Puff the Magic Dragon" made me feel almost sick with nostalgia for my own mother singing the very same song to me when I was young. The fear and betrayal that Teddy felt when he began to lose his innocence and understand the meaning behind what was happening around him was all too accurate. There is a moment when he is looking at his Jetsons bedsheets and begins to wonder if George Jetson is not the good father he appears to be. I honestly can't even describe what that made me feel. The fact that Newlin could convey the loss of childhood and innocence so perfectly in such a simple image shows what power she has as a writer.
Now, onto the terrifying parts. Teddy felt alone and lost and discovered something/someone that seemed friendly in a dark basement, golden eyes like that of a small cat. Just wanting to be friends. Speaking to him through his own thoughts. The vulnerability of Teddy from his situation and young age made him open to this shadow, a shadow that is truly within us all, always - waiting for its chance to strike us down from our pillars of hope and confidence. Everything becomes predatory when you feel utterly isolated from others, "Blackbirds, crows Teddy figured, were flying overhead. They shrieked at one another, and he wondered if they were saying something like, 'Look at the scared little boy about to be lost in the cornfield.'"
After reading this book for two days in a row, I had nightmares both nights as well. Those yellow eyes haunted my bedroom until I finished the book. I think that speaks volumes to what kind of writing Haley Newlin brings to the horror community.
However, along this journey into truly black depths, the author also brings hope in the form of some characters who are filled with love and light, who know that "sometimes our lowest moments, our worst tragedies, are simply stepping off points to something better."
You must read this book.
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more spooky reads? Just search below.
