 Dan Stockwell | Welcome to the second week of March! Our Weekend Pick is again brought to us by professor Dan Stockwell. To remind our readers, Dr. Dan Stockwell is a former high school English language arts (ELA) teacher, and an assistant professor of English Education at California State University, Bakersfield. Dan serves as a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Secondary Section Steering Committee. In addition to his book, Teaching for CHANGE in the ELA Classroom, published by Routledge in 2025, Dan has published in NCTE’s English Journal and in the California Association of Teachers of English’sCalifornia English journal. Visit Dan’s website for lesson plans and teaching ideas. |
We’re Not Safe Here by Rin Chupeco
 | Rin Chupeco’s We’re Not Safe Here is a found-media horror story that invites readers into mysteries investigated through video descriptions, transcriptions, emails, and message board posts. This is certainly a unique read that takes some time to get used to, but the format is compelling because so much is left unknown – and that’s what makes horror terrifying. Mystery enshrouds the town of Wispy Falls. Several characters investigate unsolved disappearances and the possible truths behind conspiracy theories, but the narrative centers on a 17-year-old vlogger known as Storymancer. For Storymancer, the mystery is personal because his brother Lee disappeared there years ago. |
Because this novel is told through found-media, readers participate in the investigation almost as co-investigators with the characters. Sometimes, just when you think you’ve solved a mystery, the solution is questioned by another character (perhaps in a message board post) with contradictory evidence. Many readers will enjoy the ambiguity inherent in this novel’s approach.
| One standout strength of Chupeco’s writing is their descriptions of the monsters, known as cryptids. The imagery and horror are at their highest when Chupeco describes these monsters – when a tail whips around a corner as a shaky camera in the found video barely catches the movement. At times, readers learn about these creatures almost as if they are reading a bestiary. Another strength is Chupeco’s ability to use so many disparate media artifacts to weave together a narrative that addresses several key conflicts but also ends ambiguously. In its ambiguity, Chupeco’s novel interrogates the human fear of death and what people are willing to sacrifice for the illusion of safety. Wispy Falls’s town motto, after all, is “You’ll be safe here!” |  Rin Chupeco |
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