I was sucked into the story right away! Courtney's parents, living well beyond their means, jump at the chance to live rent free at Great Uncle Aloysius's creepy old mansion that happens to be in the rich area of town. Having use of the lower floors but strictly forbidden to enter his upper domain the parents settle in. Courtney can't make friends at school due to her association with the Crumrin house and she hears things in the night. This leads to her snooping around and finding an old book with very strange recipes in it that she starts to experiment with and she meets some very strange creatures both in and out of the house which mostly want to do harm to her or someone. I loved this. Done in black and white it suits the gothic, creepy atmosphere. Courtney is a girl with an attitude but likable all the same. Can't wait to read book two and find out where the story is going to go. ( )

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things is a kids' graphic novel. It has a classic plot--girl moves to creepy old uncle's house and creepy stuff happens--but this is a model example of Tropes Are Not Bad.

There are three main things that keep this book amazing:

A) It knows its tropes, loves them, and uses them well. This is the kind of story kids like.

B) It's funny, in a biting way. It's SMART humor. The characters and dialoge are just off-beat enough to make everything seem shiny and new.

C) It's a graphic novel with gorgeous, quirky, dark art that sets the mood and lets us create a little more of the story in our own heads while giving us something pretty to look at. I love fantasy art in general, and this art adds humor to dark scenes and a sense of creepy to the funny scenes.

I will warn that the characters are not paragons, and this is not a morality play. The characters are good, but they aren't above being vindictive and conniving. It's a little creepy sometimes because it's unexpected, but it's realistic and would promote discussion.

I highly recommend this series to kids (of all ages ;) ) who like this sort of quirky fantasy/gothic horror trend that's happening right now in fiction. Fans of Lemony Snicket, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Skulduggery Pleasant, Zorgamazoo, that whole vein. ( )

Courtney is a snarky girl, and seems to dislike her parents. But what kid of her age doesn't think that their parents are idiots most of the time. Methinks that her uncle is looking for a heir if he is really as old as he claims. I haven't read any of the other ones yet,( I have this OCD thing about reading the first book first) but I do hope the cat and Butterworm come back. All in all I enjoyed it. ( )

The stories were derivative and predictable, and the art was unpleasant. The most frightening thing about this was the heroine's lack of nose.
I wouldn't recommend this to readers. ( )

I loved this book. It had illustrations like in the first Gloomcookie book that I read and it was funny. Full of fantasy and horror elements, Courtney is a loner and would like to keep it that way. She has moved in with her supposedly crazy uncle whom she has found has an obsession with things that go bump in the night. They end up getting along famously, her parents oblivious to everything going on around them. Can't wait to read more of these! ( )