The opening words of this brilliant story have the main character, Nate, muttering “I’d rather be dead,” as he sits in the car with his family on the way to their new home ‘in the middle of nowhere’.
Be careful what you wish for, Nate!
Nate’s parents have just purchased their new home at a bargain deal and it soon becomes apparent why they managed to get it for such a price. It’s rundown, a 90-minute round trip to the nearest school and it has a history. Not a very nice one either.
Being pulled out of the school you know, away from friends you’ve had since Year 1 and stuck in a distant location with no decent wi-fi coverage and then finding out you’re going to have to be home-tutored by a sour-faced woman would be the stuff of nightmares for most pre-adolescents. But Nate, despite his reservations and occasional pre-teen outbursts, tries to make the best of it for his parents and his younger sister, Mila.
Together the siblings gradually uncover all sorts of spooky clues. Rustling in the bushes and the feeling of being watched when there can’t possibly be anyone there. Windows bolted shut. A stash of bullets in a hollowed-out book. A word that looks like ‘run’ carved into the underside of a table. It’s all too much to be a coincidence.
Nothing adds up. Mila insists there are ghosts. Their tutor, Alma, knows something.
And an old lady who lives in the shed out the back insists that kids go missing from this house.
Adrian Beck has said (of another of his books), “I want kids to read, think and question,” and there is plenty of opportunity for this in Nowhere House – even if that thinking and questioning is a bit on the suspenseful, ‘I don’t really want to go there’ side.
This is exceptional storytelling, with tension right from the start, pockets of humour and the occasional, well-placed hint of pre-teen sarcasm.
I loved it. Highly recommended, particularly for lovers of the traditional, iconic ‘haunted house’ stories.
Title: Nowhere House
Author: Adrian Beck
Publisher: Scholastic Australia $15.99
Publication Date: 1 July 2026
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781761720956
For ages: 10+
Type: Middle Grade Fiction
