sibling bonds - TBD Teacher

Can you imagine being two kids featured in your mother’s famous books, with everyone around the world loving you? And yet, in reality, you are actually just two neglected children left to survive the dark Vermont woods while your artsy parents rarely pay attention to you? Melissa Albert’s adult debut, The Children, takes sibling trauma to center stage. Real-life brother and sister Guinevere and Ennis Sharpe were each other’s keepers, protectors, and only friends in a feral childhood. Can this intense sibling bond last forever, or are they hiding deep, dark secrets from each other?

Featured as a “Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club pick, this hypnotic novel left me thinking about it long after the final page was turned.

The Children by Melissa Albert book cover design dark gothic fantasy thriller.

4/5 stars ★★★★☆

To read the summary of the book!

Genre: Gothic Fiction / Magical Realism / Literary Fiction

Pages: 416

Published on: June 2, 2026

Vibe Scorecard:

🏚️ Gothic Atmosphere 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Head out to an isolated Vermont farmhouse that breathes, whispers, and keeps secrets.

🧩 Sibling Relationships ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Completely messy. Guin and Ennis are the absolute beating heart of this book.

🩸 Horror / Gore🩸 High on psychological dread and low on body count. Definitely not a slasher film.

🧚 Dark Fairy Tale Energy 🍄🍄🍄🍄 Think Grimms’ fairy tales, but the monster is the mother’s typewriter stealing her children’s childhoods.

🏎️ Pacing / Speed ⏳⏳⏳ A slow-burn. The past timeline moves like a freight train, but the present-day sibling drama takes its time.

From the publisher: A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK

“An extraordinary book. It’s a page-turner, full of mystery, but that’s the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. The Children reminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best.” —Stephen King

The haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

My Thoughts on The Children:

I gave this book four out of five stars, but it took me awhile to decide on that score.

The Vocabulary Challenge (That I Wound Up Loving)

When I first started reading The Children, I got a bit bogged down by the dense prose and flowery vocabulary. As a language arts teacher, even I found myself needing to look up many of the words! At first, it felt a little heavy-handed.

But as I got deeper into the story, my perspective completely shifted. I realized it wasn’t just fluff; Albert is simply a phenomenal writer. In fact, as an educator, I kept thinking about how perfectly her sentences could be used as mentor texts. If I were teaching a middle school language arts class today, I would absolutely pull excerpts from this book to teach students how to build tension, paint a vivid picture, and use precise, evocative vocabulary to create a physical atmosphere. Once you lean into her specific style, it becomes completely intriguing.

The Past vs. The Present

This book definitely needed its dual-timeline structure in order to understand the story more. That being said, I enjoyed the timeline of when Guinevere and Ennis were children much more. It was fun to watch them navigate their feral upbringing while trying to figure out what was actually going on with “the house.” The adult timeline was a bit slower to me, but it did add to the storyline.

More Dark Fairy Tale Than Horror

Going into this, I expected it to be a true horror story. Instead, it blends beautifully into magical realism and dark fairy-tale vibes. It features a wonderfully creepy house and unsettling forests that I almost wish I could explore myself.

My favorite element was how The Ninth City, the fictional children’s book series written by their mother, ties so perfectly into their adult lives by the conclusion. The way Melissa Albert mirrors the fictional fantasy world with the real-world trauma of the siblings was brilliant. It actually made me want to go back and reread the beginning just to see which subtle clues I might have missed!

The Verdict

If you are looking for a slasher or true horror book, you are going to be disappointed. If you want a dark fairy tale that is well-written, then you will enjoy this book. Just keep a dictionary handy. 🙂

**Where to Buy The Children and More**:

Purchase The Children by Melissa Albert here!

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What to Read Next!

If you enjoyed The Children by Melissa Albert, I would add these three incredible books to your TBR list next:

Beach Thriller by Jamie Day | Buy on Amazon
- Read my full review here
- Why it’s similar: While the setting is totally different from the dark Vermont woods, Beach Thriller hits those exact same emotional beats regarding family and grief. At its heart, it’s a story about sisterhood and how the tragic loss of a sibling shapes the rest of your life. If you loved the deep focus on sibling bonds in The Children, plus you enjoy a thriller vibe, you’ll pull for the characters here too.
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark | Buy on Amazon
- Read my full review here
- Why it’s similar: This is the ultimate thematic sibling to The Children. Both books center on a famous writer parent who uses their family’s dark history for fiction, and both explore the heavy trauma that siblings carry forward decades after a horrific event.
Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola | Buy on Amazon
- Read my full review here
- Why it’s similar: Like The Children, this book dives deep into the fact that no two siblings experience childhood the same way. It also directly explores how a parent’s public success and “public face” can completely shatter the private stability of their kids. It has that same unhurried, slow-and-steady character pace that lets you really get into the psychology of the family.

Disclosure: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Melissa Albert for my free copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

To connect with Melissa Albert on Instagram

You can also check out this Author Interview with Melissa Albert on the Today Show, where she discusses the real-life inspirations behind the children in her book.