Episode 6: There's Always Time for Chocolate Cake: The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
Carey and Marie talk about a classic of middle-grade horror, The Curse of the Blue Figure by John Bellairs. The latest installment of Spooky Month involves Egyptian magic, evil priests, and chocolate cake. Will the ghost trains finally take Cohost Rie away? What, exactly, was Carey doing involving arcane rituals with a hoard of musicians? And where does Catholic mysticism fit in? Find out in this episode!
The Curse of the Blue Figurine (A Johnny Dixon Mystery #1) by John Bellairs: Goodreads, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound
John Bellairs: Website
Content Warning: Gaslighting, medical drugging, various emotionally and physically threatening things happening to pre-teen Johnny via villain, discussion of Catholicism and Satanic ritual
Show Notes:
The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
The Dark Secret of Weatherend by John Bellairs
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater
The Curse of the Blue Figurine on Bellairsia, a website celebrating John Bellairs
New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain (inspiration for the Hag)
Itinerary: A Journey with Johnny Dixon
Curse of the Blue Figurine on John Bellairs Wiki
The Mansion in the Mist by John Bellairs
Notre Dame Magazine: John Bellairs Author of the Imaginary
A Specter is Haunting New Zebedee: Reading John Bellairs as Queer-Kid Gothic
style rookie: come sail away (on Freaks and Geeks and school dances)
Orangette's Winning Hearts and Minds Chocolate Cake
Readalikes:
Marie: The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Carey: Just read the rest of the Johnny Dixon series! And then Lewis Barnavelt and Anthony Monday! Then read some Daniel Pinkwater.
Current Reads:
Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary by Pamela Dean (it's on Kindle!)
There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017)