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Wax

by Gina Damico (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating Details · 305 Ratings · 91 Reviews

Paraffin, Vermont, is known the world over as home to the Grosholtz Candle Factory. But behind the sunny retail space bursting with overwhelming scents and homemade fudge, seventeen-year-old Poppy Palladino discovers something dark and unsettling: a back room filled with dozens of startlingly life-like wax sculptures, crafted by one very strange old lady. Poppy hightails i ...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published August 2nd 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Community Reviews

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Sep 05, 2016 Robin (Bridge Four) rated it liked it

Shelves: ya, uf-pnr, buddy-read

This was odd.

It is really outside my normal wheelhouse as it is a bit comedy and a little bit horrorlite/mystery.

Review to come....but lets just say that a Wax boy comes to life and helps a social media sensation (not in a good way but in an 'I'll be in therapy the rest of my life because my most embarrassing moment went viral' way) and her theater group save the town from wax copies replacing main members of the small town.

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Aug 14, 2016 Ashley *Hufflepuff Kitten* rated it it was amazing

Shelves: freaked-me-the-hell-out, fantasy-paranormal, written-review, favorites, wishlist, 2016

Gina Damico's books give me life. There, I said it. The Croak trilogy was incredible, Hellhole was hilarious, and Wax... Wax is fantastick. (I can make musical references t00). Seriously, that whole angle was flawless. Also, naming it the Grosholtz candle factory? Of course I realize now that I may or may not have posted a spoiler in my earlier, super-excitable non-updates, but OH WELL. I can't help it if I'm a history nut on top of a theatre geek.

But this book was amazing. The dialogue was so s ...more

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Jul 28, 2016 Candace (Literary Dust) rated it liked it

Well that was pretty weird, but it was a fun weird. The author was pretty witty in her writing and don't even get me started on Dud. He was ridiculous but definitely my favorite character. Full review on my blog https://literarydust.wordpress.com/20...

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Nov 12, 2014 Alyson {Error Nebula} marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2016-publication

Gina Damico writing about LIVING WAX FIGURES?!
All I can think of is...

This is going to be amazing!
Can't wait for 2016 ^-^

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Nov 01, 2016 Alicia O'Carrick rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-thriller, paranormal-uf

Actual rating: 3 stars.

I liked it more than Hellhole, but it wasn't quite as good as Croak, I'm afraid.

------------------

Pre-review:

2016?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I guess I'll wait here, then....

description

...more

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Sep 09, 2016 Rashika (is tired) rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal, humor, totally-worth-it, horror-dark-mystery, arc, pub-hmh, read-2016

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

6 Reasons Why You Should Read Wax

1. The back of my arc copy describes this one as being “creepy fun.” I can attest to that fact and 100% agree. This book is creepy, not super scary and fun.

2. It’s FUNNY. Things are going down in this town that are messed up but I love that the author infuses humour in the creepy. I love that this book can scare you a little but make you laugh out loud.

3. An MC who isn’t trying to hide the big bad thing ...more

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Apr 25, 2015 Brie marked it as to-read

Recommended to Brie by: Ashley *Hufflepuff Kitten*

So freaking excited!

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Aug 22, 2016 Tammie rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-books

A very enjoyable book- both funny and weird. Loved Dud- the best character in the book :)

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Sep 10, 2016 Jessica (Goldenfurpro) marked it as to-read

Shelves: actually-at-the-library-to-read, library-evergreen, library-alford, books-by-authors-i-ve-read-before, library-eldorado, hmh, wishlist, library-derby

I expect shenanigans

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Aug 03, 2016 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016, physical-2016

I really enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. It certainly was not a horror story, it was more of a humorous story. It certainly makes fun of itself and that was nice to read.

This it the story of Poppy who lives in Paraffin, Vermont. Poppy is still trying to get over the horrific accidnet she had during a national talent show. Obviously, it was televised and the entire world witnessed her performance. While trying to get on with her life, Poppy is still carefree and determined to I really enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. It certainly was not a horror story, it was more of a humorous story. It certainly makes fun of itself and that was nice to read.

This it the story of Poppy who lives in Paraffin, Vermont. Poppy is still trying to get over the horrific accidnet she had during a national talent show. Obviously, it was televised and the entire world witnessed her performance. While trying to get on with her life, Poppy is still carefree and determined to make it in the acting world. But growing up in Paraffin, home of the world famous Grosholtz Candle Factory is not easy. While on a tour of the candle factory, Poppy discovers a secret room with a rather peculiar old lady living there carving life-like statues of people out of wax. After this unsettling encounter, Poppy makes it home to discover the factory caught fire and one of the life-like statues of a young boy has come to life and answers to the name of Dud. With the help of her new wax friend, Dud, Poppy sets out to discover all of the secrets within Paraffin and rid her town on the evil within.

I know, I know. This sounds really cheesy but I am here to tell you that the story is so much more humorous than the description lets on. Poppy, Dud, and Poppy's best friend, Jill, have such funny banter that I found myself really laughing out loud. The campy humor really added to the charm of the book. I felt all of the characters were unique and a pleasure to read. I really liked Dud's character. Talk about pure innocence. I wanted to be friends with him in real life. The plot of this story is pretty straight forward. There is a mystery to be solved and Poppy sets out to solve it with her friends in tow.

I felt Damico did a great job of world building. She created a spooky, creepy world in which the unthinkable happen but it didn't seem as unrealistic as you would think. With the way Damico wrote this story, it felt natural to read a story about the strange and unusal world of all things wax. I won't give any spoilers away in this review, but everything about this story just seemed to flow. The pacing was good and so were the characters. I'm not sure I can say enough good things about this story. It surprised me and I am very lucky I was given the chance to read this one early. I highly recommend this to everyone. Please, give it a chance. This is one of those times that you should not judge a book by its cover. ...more

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Jan 18, 2016 Erikka rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-paranormal, 2016

I love Gina Damico. I just do. I feel like she gets my sense of humor. I loved the Croak books, I loved Hellhole, and this is right up there with its predecessors. The characters are fun in this. Poppy is an absolute hoot, I love her friendship with Jill, and Dud is so entertaining. The plot for some reason reminds me of the villagers in Hot Fuzz meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The ending was a crazy thrill ride (although I hope the implosion at the factory gets better fleshed out in the f ...more

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Aug 26, 2016 Mehsi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-butler-did-it, for-girls-one-shelf, octarine, away-laughing-on-a-fast-camel, warning-english-books, cover-love, 5-twinkling-stars, don-t-turn-off-the-lights

Ladies and gentlemen, Gina Damico did it again. She wrote a book that was funny, it was sad, it was creepy (and definitely unsettling), it was mysterious, it was everything you would want.

I have been reading this author's books since the Croak series, and I can tell you that I love all of her books. Every time however I do worry, would this be the first book I like less, or even don't like? But then I start reading, get slurped up in the world of the book, and even afterwards I stay stuck in the ...more

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Aug 01, 2016 Peach rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, amazing-parents, 2016-releases, arc, oh-the-horror, from-publisher, fantasy, dang-you-funny, dad-jokes

3.5

“To your masterpiece,” Jill said, toasting me with her milkshake. “Tell me: How does it end? I love spoilers.”

WAX takes place in Paraffin, Vermont. And after a horrifically embarrassing singing incident on national TV, Poppy Palladino has become a recluse. She will never, EVER live this down. After stumbling across the Grosholtz Candle Factory one evening, she meets a French old woman, Madame Grosholtz and the conspicuously lifelike wax figures she has displayed inside.

In leaving the f ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Kayla Jones rated it really liked it

This was so interesting!! Such a fascinating concept, almost felt House of Wax-y to me, which is my favorite movie of all time. I adored Poppy, her family, and most importantly, Dud.

The ending made me sad, even though I knew it was coming, but it was fantastic nevertheless.

Definitely worth a read.

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Dec 27, 2016 Paopiggy rated it really liked it

Dud, you sweetheart.

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Sep 19, 2016 Oswego Public Library District added it

Shelves: young-adult, horror-and-gothic-fiction

The town of Parrafin, Vermont is home to the world-renowned Grosholtz Candle Factory. The primary downside to living in such an idyllic town is the unholy stench that comes with combining so many different scents. For Poppy Palladino, the bigger downside is the notoriety that comes with bombing her audition for a televised singing competition. While just trying to keep her head down until graduation, things take a turn for the weird when a living wax figure, Dud, pops out of her trunk. If that’s ...more

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Apr 19, 2016 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: slj-recommended, 2016-booktalked

Thanks to HMH for an ARC!

Gina Damico won my and my students’ hearts with Croak to the point that even though my paperback copy of Croak isn’t exactly in the best shape (front cover bent, back cover torn, the pages are ripped in a way that students are missing a few words) it still circulates well. We love Croak so much we are ready to overlook any possible flaws.

Damico has a lot to offer high school and sophisticated middle school readers: she is ludicrous without being troubling or offensive. ...more

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Dec 12, 2016 Warren rated it really liked it

Kind of a slow start but ended great!

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Sep 29, 2016 Melissa Rothman rated it did not like it

OK so this book was not at all what I was expecting I was hoping for a good scary mystery but instead from the very beginning it was very teen bubble gum pop for my liking I keep trying to see if it would get better but it didn't and quickly lots interest and couldn't finish the book a big disappointment for me!

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Jul 19, 2016 Lisa Mandina rated it it was amazing

Loved it! Full review to come on my blog, Lisa Loves Literature, soon.

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Oct 12, 2016 Sheng rated it liked it

Shelves: library, ya

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In Wax, Poppy Palladino is a seventeen year old former reality show contestant living in Paraffin, Vermont, a town mostly known for its Grosholtz Candle Factory. The Grosholtz Candle Factory, headed by the Chandlers, is one of the largest of its kind and attracts tourists from all around the world. Upon discovering a wax sculpture made to her exact likeness, Poppy goes to the factory to investigate and ends up meeting Madame Grosholtz in a strange encounter. Poppy leaves the factory, only to dis In Wax, Poppy Palladino is a seventeen year old former reality show contestant living in Paraffin, Vermont, a town mostly known for its Grosholtz Candle Factory. The Grosholtz Candle Factory, headed by the Chandlers, is one of the largest of its kind and attracts tourists from all around the world. Upon discovering a wax sculpture made to her exact likeness, Poppy goes to the factory to investigate and ends up meeting Madame Grosholtz in a strange encounter. Poppy leaves the factory, only to discover that Madame Grosholtz had secretly placed inside the trunk of her car a wax sculpture of a teenage boy who had miraculously come alive. This sets off a chain of events for Poppy to discover that Madame Grosholtz (better known as Madame Tussaud) and the Chandlers have been have been harbouring a deep secret that puts the entire town of Paraffin in danger.

Wax is a weird mash of comedy and mystery in a young adult novel. Poppy proves to be a likeable protagonist with a comedically tragic embarrassing backstory about her time on a reality show. She tends to be overdramatic at times and her quips are hit-or-miss, proving to be funny at certain times and cringey in others. Her intelligence and tenacity are what led her to discover the whole shady dealings of the Chandlers in the first place and her subsequent pursuit of the truth gave the story good pace and an interesting direction as well. Dud, on the other hand, was a really strange character with a perfect grasp on grammar and other aspects of the English language, except its vocabulary. He was like a teenage version of a newborn, with the naivety and wonder of a child. How he pulled off a fake out at the end by impersonating Madame Tussaud was a little hard to believe for me considering how child-like he was but it wasn't too unbelievable.

The whole plot of this book is something like an Invasion of the Body Snatchers type of mystery mixed with wax mannequins. The wax boy that came to life, Dud, is known to the townspeople as a Hollow One, urban legends of humanoid figures with a glowing flame in their mouth. The flame and the waxy feel of their skin are the dead giveaways that a person in town has been replaced by a wax figurine of their likeness, controlled by an offshoot of the consciousness of either one of the Chandlers. Poppy soon discovers that the Chandlers intend to replace the whole town with wax people, starting with those in positions of power. Each day, two new scented candles are released from the factory, made from the scents and personalities of two newly-perished townsfolk. Once Poppy discovers this, it's a race to find out who is made out of wax and how to stop the plans of the Chandlers.

This book definitely had potential to be more but sometimes it fell into cringey teenage angst or overly emotional moments that sort of broke the level of interest I had in it at times. The plot was very similar to many other body snatcher type of films or books over the years and it was initially proving to be a little unoriginal albeit with more original characters. However, the incredibly satisfactory and fast paced ending involving Poppy's glee-club like "Giddy Committee" and their plot to destroy all wax figures and end their takeover saved the book for me. That ending really had me hooked and Dud's final noble actions were unexpected and threw me off guard at first but I was able to understand it in the end. How the group members managed to methodically take out the wax duplicates using Poppy's ubiquitous "The List" was almost a guilty pleasure. It was an almost complete happy ending (especially with the inclusion of the epilogue) with the exception of the fact that all but two of those replaced were indeed dead and their corpses were being burned alive in the factory fire.

Overall, I quite liked this book, I finished it pretty quickly, thanks to the author's simple writing style. It had to potential to be more but ultimately it was played safe but it was still satisfying to read. 3/5 ...more

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Dec 22, 2016 Yvette rated it liked it

Wax is the story of a town called Paraffin. It’s famous for making candles that smell of every conceivable scent known to man. It smelled like everything at once, all the time. For residents, “[…] Each scent layered one on top of the other, mixing and mingling, fusing and swelling into an odorous abomination that could knock an unsuspecting sniffer off his feet – a gag-inducing whiff that attacked the nostrils with a ruthless barrage of cinnamon-and-death-scented stink. Other than that, Paraffin Wax is the story of a town called Paraffin. It’s famous for making candles that smell of every conceivable scent known to man. It smelled like everything at once, all the time. For residents, “[…] Each scent layered one on top of the other, mixing and mingling, fusing and swelling into an odorous abomination that could knock an unsuspecting sniffer off his feet – a gag-inducing whiff that attacked the nostrils with a ruthless barrage of cinnamon-and-death-scented stink. Other than that, Paraffin was a lovely place to visit.”

The Grosholtz Candle Factory was responsible for making the town a tourist attraction for candle enthusiasts who enjoyed the museum tours, bought the candles and wax molds, and loved the artificially bought happiness that came from the fragrant candles. All is seemingly well in the small town until people start to go missing and are replaced with living wax replicas. It’s like a case of the body snatchers.

Poppy Palladino, a local teenager and budding thespian who recently suffered a humiliating performance of The Sound of Music, is the first to realize something isn’t quite right in their picture perfect town. She with the help of her best friend, Jill, and a wax boy who comes to life named Dud investigate what is really going on behind the scenes inside the candle factory. It has something to do with Madame Tussauds and a couple who seek eternal life.

I think what made this book enjoyable for me was the unexpected humor and banter between characters. I especially liked the scenes between Poppy and Jill as they try to teach Dud English and the fun they have with words and their sometimes multiple meanings. The author is clearly having fun with the language. For example, “Time to hit the hay. […] “Poppy?” “Yeah?” “What is hay and why would you hit it?” “Go to sleep, Dud.” “What is sleep?” Poppy snapped the light on. “You don’t sleep?” she said irritably. “Close your eyes and lose consciousness for seven to nine hours?” “That sounds scary.” It did, now that he mentioned it.”

This is definitely written for a younger audience. I still enjoyed the story and the ridiculousness that takes place as Poppy tries to convince her parents that Dud is a foreign exchange student visiting from Africa to explain his strangeness as she struggles to solve the mysterious disappearance of townsfolk, and ultimately - save the town.
...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Megmar rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, doo-wee-ooo, ya, horror, kickass-protagonist, lulz

Poppy had not realized how exhausting it would be to infiltrate a mysterious candle factory, stumble upon a talented yet batty genius, adopt a scientifically impossible being, concoct a parentally tolerable lie, incur the suspicion of the police, eat a banana split, and discover a lost will and testament all in one day, but when she opened her bleary eyes the next morning and looked at the time on her phone, she saw it was already noon.

"Don't judge, Simba," she told her poster, disentangling he ...more

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Jan 11, 2017 Constance Cooper rated it it was amazing

This book was a pure delight from beginning to end. Humor? Lots. Great characters and dialogue? Check! An original plot that unfolds at a very satisfying speed? Absolutely. This is not the sort of book that will make you cry, or torture you with the angst of the characters, but it will make you laugh, possibly out loud even if you usually don't. This is a great book to use as a palate-cleanser if you just read something depressing. I finished it and thought, "Ahhhhh...I needed that."

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Nov 02, 2016 Erin rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-funny

I picked this one up for a Halloween read, but instead of cowering while I read it between trick-or-treaters, I was stifling my laughter. The book jacket blurb makes it sound like a pseudo-horror which is misleading. The suspension-of-disbelief level is pretty high and the book is quite campy overall, but it's a lot of fun and the characters are authentically teen. Great for fans of dark humor in YA.

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Nov 23, 2016 Jen (The Starry-Eyed Revue) rated it really liked it

Shelves: library, magical-realism-speculative-fiction, 2016

This book was weird but also very humorous. I never truly connected to the characters, though for magical realism, that's pretty much par for the course with me. But I still found the story highly entertaining. I mean, how can you go wrong with a sidekick made of wax, whose sneezes light candles, and who goes by the name Dud?

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Nov 18, 2016 Jenny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-owned, x-standalones, 2016-read

I really enjoyed this one. At first I thought it was going to be a lot like the horror movie House of Wax. While it shared some characteristics, it had a quite different storyline and so I wasn't sure what was going to happen in the end, making me continue on to see. A solid read with suspense and a bit of good humor thrown in.

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Nov 10, 2016 Jillian rated it liked it

Interesting concept, but the plot was a little thin and there wasn't much character development. I also had a hard time believing her her parents were that gullible. But a fun quick read overall.

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Dec 17, 2016 Miranda rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, supernatural, family-life

3.5 stars. Not the most literary of novels, but still a fun romp through the zany town of not quite normal Parraffin. Great for fans of Lish McBride and Damici's Croak series.

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Nov 28, 2016 Tracy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-fantasy, five-stars

I always enjoy Gina Damico books. Always so fun and imaginative. It took me awhile to finish not because of the book itself but the holidays were busy and I was lazy.

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About Gina Damico

I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, where I was active with the Committee for Creative Enactments, a murder mystery improv comedy troupe that may or may not have sparked my interest in wildly improbably bloodshed. I have since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie ...more

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