Edith Holler

"Do not, no matter how hungry, eat the beetle spread! It’s the fictional condiment of the city of Norwich, made (supposedly) from ground deathwatch beetles. And 12-year-old Edith Holler, cursed never to leave her family’s Victorian theater lest she die, suspects there’s something ghastly ground into the spread. When she tries to communicate this to the city, everything goes sideways: A mysterious stepmother with suspiciously sharp teeth arrives, a stage collapses, uncles disappear, and beetles, beetles, beetles are everywhere! Edward Carey excels in writing – and drawing! – peculiar characters, and the cast he creates for the macabre and fun Edith Holler is no exception."