Remy Lai’s Read at Your Own Risk is a graphic novel about a 7th grader who has roused a malevolent spirit and is trying to stay a step ahead of it.
This work is set up as a journal that starts on a Monday. Hannah and some of her friends skip assembly at school to go up to the attic of a school building. They play a game called “Spirit of the Coin,” to connect to the spirit world. And now, based on Hannah’s experiences, she is feeling cursed.
There’s a slip of a scalpel in science class. A permanent tooth pops out. And what follows is a frenzied series of actions and mysteries.
Read at Your Own Risk is the notebook about Hannah’s travails, drawn in a scribbly style replete with red-ink blood splotches, text in different colors, and surprises. This rollicking novel is a page-turning mix of detective novel, mystery, and ghost story. At one point, Hannah writes:
“What I’d give to simply be vexed by teen feels. Instead, I’m hexed by ancient evil.”
Hannah is high reactance, hyper-sensitive, neurotic, and imaginative. She is trying to figure out if the spirit is friend or foe. The stakes rise when this external power moves in on her family.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
