Reviews

A tight and focused story about the dangers of wishing things back to normal at any cost. The language is straightforward, rarely derailed by extraneous details, but the emotional resonance is deep, and Steve's precarious interactions with the honey-voiced queen make one's skin crawl. Klassen's full-page black-and-white drawings—simple, but with maximum impact, in shades of light, dark, and darker-astutely capture the magnitude of a child's imagination.

– HORN BOOK (STARRED REVIEW)

Set in a modern-day suburb, this quiet yet emotionally haunting book thoughtfully explores themes of safety, anxiety, and the beauty of the imperfect. Klassen’s black-and-white graphite illustrations complement the sensitive and powerful narrative, written in first person from Steve’s perspective.

– SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW)

The Nest opts for Stephen King-lite terror – though with a lot of interesting sub-currents about the nature of fear and of familial love. Caldecott and Governor General’s Literary Award–winning illustrator Jon Klassen contributes some appropriately gloomy incidental drawings, but this is Oppel’s show – his prose is brisk and visceral. Having become a YA star many years ago by bringing readers inside the minds of bats, Oppel has now concocted a kidlit horror classic by taking them inside a wasps’ nest.

– QUILL & QUIRE (STARRED REVIEW)

Oppel deftly conveys the fear and dislocation that can overwhelm a family: there’s the baby born with problems, the ways that affects the family, and Steve’s own struggles to feel and be normal. Everything feels a bit skewed, conveying the experience of being in transition from the familiar to the threateningly unfamiliar. Klassen’s several illustrations in graphite, with their linear formality and stillness and only mere glimpses of people, nicely express this sense of worry and tension. Steve’s battle with the enemy is terrifying, moving from an ominous, baleful verbal conflict to a pitched, physical, life-threatening battle. Compelling and accessible.

– KIRKUS (STARRED REVIEW)

Oppel infuses the natural world of the hive with chilling scenes of the queen’s heartlessness (“Before you know it, you’ll forget all about that crappy little broken baby”) while Klassen’s graphite drawings hauntingly depict the family’s stress (an early image, all angles and shadows, shows Steve’s parents standing solemnly over the baby’s crib), as well as increasing tension between Theodore’s complications and the wasps’ growing power. In exploring the boundaries of science, self-determination, and belief, Oppel uses a dark and disturbing lens to produce an unnerving psychological thriller.

– PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)​​​​

In his best work to date, Kenneth Oppel tells the story of Steve, a perpetually anxious boy with a gravely ill baby brother and persistent dreams of angel-esque creatures... It's a masterpiece.

– THE GLOBE & MAIL

With subtle, spine-chilling horror at its heart, this tale of triumph over monsters—both outside and in—is outstanding. Printz-winning, New York Times best-selling Oppel and Caldecott-winning Klassen are a match made in kid-lit heaven. Expect ample buzz. 

– BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

“The Nest opts for Steven King-lite terror—though with a lot of interesting sub-currents about the nature of fear and of familial love . . . a kidlit horror classic.”

— Quill & Quire (starred review)

“Oppel deftly conveys the fear and dislocation that can overwhelm a family: there’s the baby born with problems, the ways that affects the family, and Steve’s own struggles to feel and be normal . . . Compelling and accessible.”

— Kirkus (starred review)

“In exploring the boundaries of science, self-determination, and belief, Oppel uses a dark and disturbing lens to produce an unnerving psychological thriller.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)