Review: Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow by James Howe

Last book in the series. I finished this up just in time for Halloween.

The Monroe house is going mad with excitement. Pete has just won a contest, and the prize is a school visit from none other than M. T. Graves, Pete’s idol and the bestselling author of the FleshCrawlers series. He’s even going to stay with the Monroes while he’s visiting! Harold and Howie are thrilled, but Chester the cat is suspicious. Why does Graves dress all in black? Why doesn’t the beady-eyed crow perched on his shoulder say anything? Why has a threatening flock of crows invaded the backyard? And most worrisome of all: In each of the FleshCrawlers books, why does something bad always happen to the pets? Suddenly, Graves’s interest in all of the animals — especially Bunnicula — looks far from innocent. It’s up to Chester, Harold, and Howie to find out if M. T. Graves and Edgar Allan Crow are really devising a plot to make their beloved bunny. . . NEVERMORE.

Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow by James Howe. Bunnicula #7, the last in the series. Illustrated by Eric Fortune. Published by Atheneum in 2008.

I was very hesitant to read this book. The last few in the series were seriously depressing and I was worried that the last book in the series would follow that same pattern of being dark and depressing. But, I had made a deal with myself. I was going to read the whole series for October. I had already worked my way all the way to book number 6… it would drive me nuts if I didn’t see how the series ended.

It took forever for Bunnicula to even make his appearance, and once he did, he actually wasn’t in the story that much. It was another Bunnicula-dissappeared-and-now-we-have-to-find-him plot. This has been every plot device with the vampire bun. I wish that Bunnicula could have been center stage at least once in his series. I thought maybe we’d finally see him talk? But no…. that was not meant to be.

Not going to lie, this book was kind of difficult for me to read. Not because the book was bad, but because of the over all themes it touched on hit a little bit too close to home for me. Book 7 dealt with social anxiety, embracing change, even if it means saying goodbye, and letting go of things that are difficult. D: Yikes! I have a very hard time with all of the above! I did not really want to read about any of that. >.> This book also had the themes of loneliness and being judged for being different, which, by now readers of the Bunnicula series are well acquainted with. Even though it was hard for me to read this book, it turned out to be a rather touching story.

I was not totally in love with the art work for book 7. There are a few cute pictures, but the art style was very exaggerated in some pictures and just not my fave type of art. But it is very well done, especially the shading. Plus, the vampire bunny does look super cute.

Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow was a sad book, but not as sad and dark as the last two books. It was also a decent ending to the series, even though I personally would have liked to have heard from Bunnicula for once.