Exit Nowhere, by Juliana Brandt

If you are looking for a middle grade spooky read for the Halloween season, Exit Nowhere, by Juliana Brandt (Aladin, Sept 4, 2024) is perfect! It's a creepy house of horrors escape room-esque story in which is nested the middle grade friendship/self-awareness arc of the main character.

Barret Eloise focuses on being the best student in her Appalachian middle school.  Since she's not distracted by any sort of social life, her one former friend Helena now only an acquaintance, she has nothing else to do with her time (her older brother invites her to compete in various video games, but she can't stand losing all the time, so she refuses).

When she's forced into a group assignment on local history with Helena, and two boys, Ridge (a somewhat abrasive jock), and Wayne (a geeky tech kid), she is focused on winning this as well.  Her suggestion that the group investigate the creepy history of the town's haunted house, Rathfield Manor, is accepted....

and they start by investigating Norma, now an elderly woman, who with her boyfriend entered the house long ago.  Norma made it out, but her boyfriend, Eugene, didn't.  It turns out Norma is Ridge's aunt, and when they visit her, she won't, or can't, talk about what happened to her, but does whisper to Barret Eloise that "you can't win." 

When the four kids decide to visit the house themselves, it turns out to be a terrible idea. They are trapped inside it by the ghost of a five-year-old boy who died there, and who has been forcing anyone who visits to play his games.   Remembering Norma's words, Barret Eloise is determined to prove her wrong,  Maybe she can't figure out what's wrong with herself, that she can't make friends, but she can solve puzzles....And so begins a terrifying contest, in which one after the other, the kids begin to lose to the traps and tricks of the angry child ghost, starting with a game of The Floor is Lava, in which the lava is all too real.

They meet Eugene, still trapped in the house, and when Barret Eloise and Helena, the last two kids still standing, learn that Eugene actually won the games against the ghost, they just barely figure out what to do to avoid his fate, and lay the ghost boy to rest.

Any kid who enjoys spooky escape room scenarios will love this one!  The supernatural horrors are memorably scary, the progress the kids make in figuring out the mystery they've been trapped, each bringing their own contribution to the successful outcome, makes gripping reading, and the social dynamics of the group, with Barret Eloise forced into introspection and self-realization, adds an appealing personal story to the ghostly side of things.  

Highly recommended!