Book Review: The Nest

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

This middle-grade book was published late last year and is one of the scariest, most disturbing books I've ever read. I read it in a single sitting. And now sleep with the light on.

Young Steven just had a baby brother. But something is wrong with the baby, and the family's days are consumed with worry and hospitals and tests. Steven starts to have dreams of an angel-like creature who is soothing and reassuring, and who offers to help make the baby better. In his waking hours, Steven discovers a wasp nest growing just outside the baby's window. Over the course of a few days, Steven comes to realize that he is visiting the wasps in his dreams, and that their plans for "fixing" the baby are not what Steven had bargained for at all. The wasps offer to fix him as well -- Steven is a child who suffers from disturbing nightmares, anxiety, and OCD, which adds complex layers and nuance to an already tangled problem (for starters, when he reports disturbing dreams about the baby, it is assumed that his mind is troubled, and he is sent back to his therapist). Wouldn't it just be easier if Steven could be fixed? If the baby could be perfect? If the grief and worry could just go away? A very powerful (and completely terrifying) exploration of courage, acceptance, and what is "normal." Full of dreams, the story itself is dreamlike, and so compelling I couldn't put the book down.