Carly Anne West

Carly Anne West writes unsettling fiction for younger readers, including the middle-grade Hello Neighbor novels created with Scholastic and game developer tinyBuild. Bad Blood follows Aaron Peterson, the son of an eccentric theme-park designer, after a serious incident at his father’s latest project leaves the family facing legal trouble and financial strain. A new job brings them to Raven Brooks, where the town and the Peterson family each have secrets to protect. Scholastic classifies the book as a mystery for ages ten and older, places it fourth in the Hello Neighbor sequence, and presents it as the beginning of a new prequel trilogy about the family’s rise and fall. Found documents help readers piece together the plot’s questions, while Tim Heitz and Artful Doodlers provided the edition’s art. The novel shows West adapting a video-game world through family history, investigation, and gradually disclosed evidence.