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!

The Ghost of Midnight Lake, by Lucy Strange

 

Falling of a ladder earlier this week, and the rather painful recovery that still continues, meant I didn't get any posts written....so I'm squeezing in a quick review of The Ghost of Midnight Lake, by Lucy Strange (published in the UK as The Ghost of Gosswater, Chicken House 2021), before posting this week's round-up.

It is 1899 in England's Lake District, and the Earl of Gosswater has died.  Young Lady Agatha expected to inherit the castle, but instead she learns that she is not actually the Earl's daughter, and everything goes to cruel, grasping cousin Clarence.  A small part of Agatha is a bit relieved to know that there's an external reason why she always felt unloved, but a much larger part of Agatha is horrified to be turned out of her home penniless, sent to live with her actual father who she never knew existed.  And a father who has spent time in prison, who lives in a humble cottage raising geese...

Her horror shares headspace with a burning desire to get something of what she feels is owed to her--starting with a magnificent black opal that she prizes out from its setting before being sent away from the castle.  There's a second family opal as well, a white one, but that one has been lost for years....

Agatha's father does not give her a warm and loving welcome; he is not unkind, but is very reserved and tells Agatha nothing about the past.  Still, she sets to work with reasonable good will and utter lack of ability on the domestic tasks assigned to her.  Inside, though, she's determined to both find out her backstory and find the missing white opal.

And with the help of a mysterious ghost and a local orphaned boy, she does both.

I read it in a single sitting--it's a nice, twisty story.  Older readers (like me) might find Clarence something of an evil caricature, and Agatha's fixation on getting what's owed to her a bit unappealing.  But that same older reader might well enjoy seeing Agatha and her father, along with the orphan boy, becoming a found family, and discovering who the ghost really is.  There are plenty of scary and shocking moments, lots of good descriptions, and a very memorable goose that keep the pages turning quickly!  So overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Fox Snare (Thousand Worlds #3), by Yoon Ha Lee

Another very busy week for me, with none of the reviews I wanted to write being written...so here once more is a quick one before I post today's round up.

Fox Snare (Thousand Worlds #3), by Yoon Ha Lee, is the third installment of great space adventure for upper middle grade readers on up (but do read the first two books in the series first).

Min, the fox spirt who was the central character of Dragon Pearl, is now the keeper of that titular pearl, which can magically terraform in hospitable planets.  Before this, terraforming relied on Dragon magic, and now the Dragons are unhappy that they now outclassed.  Haneuol, a young dragon, was once Min's friend, and when she arrives on the vessel where Min is currently in residence as part of the Dragon delegation to important diplomatic negations with the leader of the Sun Clan nations, Min hopes they can rekindle their relationship, but it doesn't go well. Sebin, the non-binary tiger spirit who was the central character of Tiger Honor, is a cadet on this same ship, and finds themselves drawn into the diplomatic tensions as well.

The leaders of the Thousand Worlds want to use Min and the pearl to terraform a planet that lies at a crucial junction between the two hostile factions...but it's not just location that makes this planet a prize both sides want--long ago an immensely powerful war ships crashed there, and whichever side can recover it will have a huge military advantage.

Then the space station where the negotiations are being held explodes.  Min, Haneuol, and Sabin crash land on the contested planet, along with a fox spirit woman who is clearly a suspicious character, and whose own agenda is occluded by her fox gift of charm.  Travelling across this alien world to the site of the crashed warship, Min is troubled by the conflict between her loyalty to the Thousand Worlds and her desire to trust another Fox, Sabin is torn between strict adherence to duty and critical examination of what is happening, and Haneul must wrestle with familial expectations and her own wishes.

And then they reach the ship, and things get enormously more tense as the threesome realizes the truth about why it was never recovered, and just what the Fox spirit woman has planned.

Told in alternating points of view by Min and Sebin, this is a gripping read in which the character's personal conflicts and the external dangers are beautifully balanced, and the magical abilities of the shape shifters, and some unexpected supernatural elements, make for lovely reading.  This installment is more direct than the previous book in identifying the Thousand Worlds as being of Korean descent, and the Sun Clans as being Japanese, making it an even more thought-provoking read. 

My only worry is that this seems to be the final book about these characters and their universe, and that thought makes me sad.  On the other hand, I can look forward to a nice re-read....

The Lovely Dark, by Matthew Fox

I loved Matthew Fox's first book, The Sky Over Rebecca, so much that I ordered The Lovely Dark (July  2023 in the UK, Hodder Children's Books) from Blackwells (free shipping from the UK!) and read it pretty much in a single sitting yesterday. I meant to review it, but it felt too raw to do so immediately, so I'm squeezing it in before today's round-up post.

The Lovely Dark is a middle grade reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a dash of Sleeping Beauty. It begins with sadness, when Ellie's grandmother dies alone of Covid during the height of the pandemic. and it quickly becomes fantasy, when her grandmother's ghost pays Ellie a cryptic visit. As covid restrictions lift, Ellie becomes great friends with Justin, who's just moved in across the street. Justin takes her to see a newly discovered mosaic of the Orpheus story, found deep underground....and disaster strikes when the walls around the excavation give way, and the two children are trapped by the inrushing water.

They find themselves in the underworld, determined to stick together and find a way home. But they each have a different path to follow, and are forced to split up. Ellie's path takes her to Eventide, a sort of school (but with no lessons) filled with other children, with tasty food, pleasant grounds, and secrets. The other children are all dimly content there, despite having died, but Ellie is determined to find Justin again. In her explorations, she finds that in the locked library another girl named Ash is hiding in a secret room behind the books, which are themselves somewhat haunted--fairytales in particular keep being pushed off their shelves.

(This is where the Sleeping Beauty part enters into it--Ash and Ellie agree to give themselves permission to kiss each other if they ever need to be awakened from a cursed sleep, and this is an important plot point later).

Ellie keeps exploring, and finds much that discomfits her, and then she and Justin make contact again, and he helps her go home. And Justin, unlike Orpheus, doesn't look back and I wept.

Slight spoiler--Ellie's experiences could all be written off as a dream, but I am so glad Matthew Fox doesn't throw this in our (tear-streaked) faces. And since the ghost grandmother can't be explained way, the story gets to stay fantasy.

In short, Matthew Fox is now firmly an auto-buy (as expenses allow) author for me.  And I am determined that next time I won't peak at the ending halfway through, concerned though I may be for the fate of characters I am deeply invested in!

Nightspark, by Michael Mann

I very much enjoyed Ghostcloud, by Michael Mann, the first book in the duology (? maybe there are more adventures to come) that now continues with Nightspark (Peachtree 2023). Luke has been reunited with his family after foiling the evil plots of Tabitha, who used enslaved children, such as Luke and his best friend Ravi, as well as captured ghosts for her power station in an alternate England. He even has the job as a junior detective he always wanted.  

But he can't settle into ordinary life.  For starters, Tabitha has started on a new evil plan over on the continent, and his best friend Ravi is still her prisoner.  On top of that, Luke is a half ghost, and though he tries to enlist the aid of the Ghost Council, they are hostile to him and think he'd make a better 100% ghost.  But Luke is nothing if not determined, and so with a mixed lot of reluctant helpers and friends, including his best ghost friend, a mission to rescue Ravi and foil Tabitha is launched. 

It seems hopeless, but a string of daring adventures takes the little band across the English Channel...where things get even more dangerously exciting. It's not just extravagant adventure though; sprinkled into the story are thought-provoking moments where the characters have to make hard choices--like an encounter with an overloaded boat of refugees in the Channel, and the question of whether someone who has done horrible things can become trustworthy....

If you like action-packed adventure with supernatural shenanigans, dystopian settings, and brave kids full of heart triumphing over horrible circumstances, you will love Nightspark! But it is essential to read Ghostcloud first (and since I liked that one even more than its sequel, I'm sure you won't mind at all). 

Omega Morales and the Curse of El Cucuym by Laekan Zea Kemp

It was a pleasure to revisit Omega Morales in her second adventure--Omega Morales and the Curse of El Cucuy (Omega Morales, 2) by Laekan Zea Kemp (October 2023, Little Brown).  A new monster, the legendary Mexican boogeyman El Cucuy, has come to town, and he is kidnapping children, and sending adults into an enchanted sleep.  Omega, her cousin Carlito, and Clau, her ghost friend, are determined to defeat him, but the game he is playing with them has twists and turns that seem to make this almost impossible.

Fortunately Omega has a new magical creature friend at her side, who is both cute and brave, as well has help from other kids in town.  And although most of the adults in her family are asleep, she can still find some help through dreams with them, and those who aren't asleep try to help (with little success, though).  In the end, as was the case with the first book, it is understanding and empathizing with the monster that lets Omega put an end to his reign of terror.

As I said in my review of the first book in the series, Omega Morales and the Legend of La Lechuza, "it never ceases to amaze me how the familiar middle grade themes of navigating family and friends and one's own changing self can be explored in so many different magical ways."  And as was the case with the first book, Omega isn't just dealing with a monstrous external threat but is also struggling to understand her own magic and how it is manifesting.  As was the case in the first book, her mother and grandmother are not helpful in this regard (even when awake), and I continue to be displeased with them.  On the plus side, though, this sequel doesn't have the disturbing bullying Omega experienced in the first book.

It is a book dense with magic, dangers, and Omega's relationships with a swirl of other characters (lots of minor characters)--it pays to read it slowly, because if you are a fast reader like me, you might from time to time become unsure of the particulars of what's happening and who is involved.  And be warned--it ends with a cliffhanger.  But those two caveats aside, it's an engrossing and entertaining story!

Field of Screams, by Wendy Parris

If you are looking for a middle grade ghost story that's spooky and scary but not so horrifying as to be disturbing, Field of Screams, by Wendy Parris (August 2023 by Delacorte Press), is a great pick!

Rebecca is a would-be ghost hunter who hasn't yet managed to actually see a ghost.  When her mother decides the two of them are going to spend the summer with her deceased dad's family on a farm in Iowa, the only comfort her best friend (who she was hoping to go to camp with) can offer is that an old house in the middle of nowhere sounds like a great place for ghosts.

And indeed, this proves to be the case.  The mundane world of family time, including reminiscences about her dad that make her feel closer to him (he too believed in ghosts, for instance), is disturbed by creepy happenings.  They are small at first, and possible to for Rebecca dismiss with intense logical thought, and certainly nothing anyone else takes seriously.  Not even Nick, the cute boy who is willing to at least consider the possibility that ghosts are real, is convinced at first.  But the creepiness turns into a genuine haunting that can't be dismissed.  

Rebecca, now certain there is a real ghost, struggles to keep investigating like a good paranormal researcher while becoming increasingly frightened.  The ghost is getting stronger and more terrifying every day.  It becomes a race to find the clues to who the ghost is and what they want, before a tragedy from long ago strikes again.

The mystery is a satisfying one, leading down an interesting path of Rebecca's family history to a really great abandoned (and haunted) house (I liked the abandoned house exploring bits lots!).  The haunting is also satisfying, and the ghost makes sense--there's a reason they are still around.  The writing is very vivid; it is easy to feel Rebecca's fright and admire her determination to keep going.  Real world tensions (is Rebecca's mom falling in love with Kelsie's dad?  And why is Kelsie so awful to Rebecca?) play on Rebecca's nerves alongside the strain of being haunted, adding to general discomfort that's looming like an approaching storm.

And then when then the storm breaks, all the pieces come together very nicely indeed in a tense and moving climax.

Don't expect, though, all the jump scares and bloody horror the title might conjure up; there's actually no running-while-screaming through a corn field, and the field is only a minor part of the haunting.

But you can expect to be gripped and entertained by the supernatural mystery, that touches on themes of loss and change that are very relatable to the target audience!

The Ghost Job, by Greg Van Eekhout (with interview!)

Greg Van Eekhout is one of the authors who gets shelf space in my much beloved, still new and shiny, built-in bookshelf of which this is only a small section:

(Although this post is supposed to be a book review with bonus interview, I'd like to take the time to note the pleasing progression from Kelly Barnhill to William Alexander to Greg's books....Stephanie Burgis is perhaps not the right continuation, though, and I may have to tweak...and of course all of these authors are still writing (yay!) and I need to go back and buy the ones I don't already have when funds allow (built in bookshelves aren't cheap) so in a few years someone will have to be moved in any event...I can imagine, for instance, a whole Stephanie Burgis shelf which would take care of the question about who should go next to her.)

In any event, the newest arrival in the very choice Greg Van Eekhout section is The Ghost Job (Sept 26, 2023, HarperCollins), which I enjoyed very much!  It's the story of Zenith and her three best friends who fall victim to a freak middle school science lab accident.  Although being dead stinks, at least they have each other. 

 But when they hear of a machine that might be able to bring them back to life, they are determined to steal it from the unscrupulous necromancer using it for his own financial gain.  But not only is the machine well-guarded, they soon realize the necromancer wants to bottle their own ghostly essences for his stockpile of spirits....

Each of the kids has their own particular ghostly ability that makes them a great time to carry out this heist of a death-time.  Zenith can move physical things, Nicholas can make himself heard by the living, Vanessa can send her vision into the eyes of paintings and photographs from outside of buildings, and Eddie, who already had an affinity for the mechanical, now feels electric currents and the like in his ghostly body.  But even with these helpful heist advantages, it's touch and go....

There is great ghost action and adventure here, but there's a thoughtful, heart-tugging side of it too.  The kids, after all, are ghosts, and though they have each other, it is fundamentally a sad situation.  Ethical and moral questions are raised as well, giving the reader interesting food for thought.  All in all, an excellent read!

I got to ask Greg some questions about the book, which was nice for me.

How did the premise of Ghost Job come to you?

I was hard at work lying on the couch with my eyes closed, trying to decide if I wanted to write about heists or ghosts, and then the first line of the book came to me: "Ghosts are great thieves" and it was like boom, there's the book. Then I started working even harder and an hour later I woke up and had a glass of milk.

These are your first middle grade ghosts, and I'm wondering if the ghostly part apparated in your mind more or less intact, or if it required deep thought about things ghosts can make and do. And speaking of what ghosts can do, each character has a unique skill, with Zenith, the pov character, having poltergeist powers. It's essential for the plot that this is her skill, and I'm curious about whether you had to do a lot of making power fit plot, or vice versa, or if you knew from the start that Zenith would need to be able to do what she does? (and if you were a middle school ghost, which of the skills would you pick as your own?)

Ghost powers are pretty straightforward -- being invisible, walking through walls, etc. But stories about thieves who pull complicated heists generally feature specialists. You need a mastermind, you need muscle, you need a tech nerd, and so on. So I chose the specialities my ghost crew needed, assigned each character one of those roles, and then crafted their personalities to fit.

The main character, Zenith, is the muscle. She's a poltergeist who can move objects in the physical world. If I were a middle school ghost I'd want Zenith's powers just because there's so much potential to help people lift heavy objects, plus pranks.

One of the things that doesn't get a lot of explicit page time is the crushing grief of being sundered from family, though it's clearly something Zenith is feeling. Was the process of grief titration (enough so that it's there, not so much that readers get bogged down in a morass of sadness) tricky for you?

The grief and loss were the trickiest parts to write. I wanted to write a fun story about ghosts who steal stuff, but I couldn't ignore that a ghost is someone who's died, and death is horribly sad for those left behind, and if there is such a thing as a ghost, it must be sad for them too. So I aimed to find the right mix of jokes and adventure and hijinks while also respecting the emotional consequences of the concept.

There are so many themes and metaphors and messages that can be found in the story....do you have any such thing in particular that you hope young readers can take away?

Nobody gets through life without some hardship and loss, and I know of nothing that alleviates pain better than friends and love and laughter. Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends. Just like the REM song.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Do I believe in spectral presences that visit us and speak to us and interact with our physical environment? No. But do I believe our bodies and minds and the environments around us can combine in ways that make us feel like there are ghosts messing around with us? Absolutely. Unless it's Halloween. On Halloween I totally believe in ghosts. Especially when I'm alone. In the dark. In a graveyard...

Thanks Greg!

nb--The Ghost Job is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards, and hasn't been nominated yet.  Here's where you can go nominate this one or many other fine books still awaiting their nod!  Cybils nominations are a great way to show love for your favorite books and authors!

disclaimer: review copy recieved from the publishers 

Omega Morales and the Legend of La Lechuza, by Laekan Zea Kemp

So the bulk of my reading these days is middle grade fantasy/sci fi for the Cybils Awards, and it never ceases to amaze me how the familiar middle grade themes of navigating family and friends and one's own changing self can be explored in so many different magical ways.   Yesterday I finished Omega Morales and the Legend of La Lechuza, by Laekan Zea Kemp (September 2022, Little Brown), and this story of a Mexican American girl in a magical family does a lovely job with these threads of story!

Omega's town of Noche Buena is split between those who have magic, like her family, who were there first, and the mundane newer families, existing in slightly uneasy harmony.  But when the towns cats begin to go missing, suspicion and hostility towards  Omega's family begins to grow.  Omega's former best friend is part of this movement.

Omega and her cousin Carlito are lonely outsiders, hanging out just with each other and with the ghost girl who lives with them.  Adding to Omega's unhappy state of mind is her worry that her magical gifts will never amount to much. As it is, her out-of-control empathetic ability overwhelms her, sometimes to the point of physical collapse.

And then La Lachuza, a legendary owl/woman monster, comes to town.  She seems particularly interested in Omega...and Omega, though terrified, senses something in her that speaks to her.  But can Omega fight her way through the secrets and lies her own family has woven around her to save herself, her town, and possibly even the monster?

It's a good mystery, and I was drawn in tighter and tighter as more of La Lachuza's story was unfolded with all its intergenerational trauma; the pages turned quickly, and Omega became a beautifully clear character in my mind.  Her exploration of her own particular twist on empathy was very satisfying, her fascination with La Lachuza gripping, and I was happy to cheer her on.

A few things did bother me though. I got really frustrated with Omega's mother and grandmother. They thought they were doing the right thing by trying to keep her safe, but mostly did it with fierce anger and obfuscation, which I didn't appreciate.  For a family of empaths, they aren't very empathetic in their nurturing--when Omega's ex-friend draws on her face with permanent mark after she passes out from emotional overload, Omega's mom tells her to be forgiving and get over it, becoming a stronger person. Not helpful!  

I was also frustrated that Omega's cousin Carlito didn't get any character arc or any particular role in the plot.  He could have been cut from the book and it would have been barely noticeable.  Balancing that, the ghost girl is a great character who added both entertaining ghostly shenanigans and moving emotional weight.

(There's also a magical library, talking trees, and an attic full of family history--all pluses for me, and a sweet little nascent romance, a plus for the target audience)

And so my final thought is that although I didn't quite end up loving it to pieces, I did like it lots and was glad to see it ended with a tease for more to come!

me and Kirkus are pretty much on the same page--here's their review

Eden's Everdark, by Karen Strong

Eden's Everdark, by Karen Strong (September 6th 2022,Simon & Schuster), is a creepy ghostly middle grade horror story; but that being said, it is also a story of love and grief, family and history.

Eden's mother never took her to visit Safina Island off the Georgia Coast, home to generations of her family who were first enslaved there and then made it their own place, where they owned land and became a strong community.  But after her mother dies, her father takes her to see her family there.  Not only does Eden find love from her kin in this beautiful island full of history, but discovers it's dark side, a darkness that was the reason her mother and grandmother left when her mother was still a girl.

Her mother left behind a sketchbook full of terrifying images--monsters, strange and spooky children, and more.  And Eden discovers these weren't drawn from imagination, but from real life.  When she finds a rift into the darkness, she feels strangely drawn to it, and goes through.  Just as the witch who rules this land of ever darkness, where the sun never shines, wanted.

The Everdark is a spectral overlay on the real world, and in the grand house built by the descendants of the plantation owners, the witch, who calls herself Mother Mary, exercises near total control of the ghosts she's captured.  Two ghost girls have been made her children, and she want's Eden to be her third dear daughter.  Eden is still alive, though...though possibly not for long....and she's determined to escape.  

But getting free means figuring out the sources of Mother Mary's power, and how to break it before she herself is broken.  And it means uncovering the secret of her mother's magic--the family gift of making things grow--and finding it with herself as well.

The warm and loving first section of the book is a sharp and very effective contrast to the horror of the Everdark, with its creeping rot, trapped ghosts, Mother Mary being terrifying inside, and monsters lurking outside.  But her survival and ultimate escape comes in no small part from the warmth and love in her own self.  Added interest comes from the identities of all the ghosts (who come from many different times) that Eden meets. Mother Mary's backstory packs an especially intense punch--she isn't just a cardboard villain, but someone who was badly wronged who really does want her "children" to love her.

There's no miraculous end to Eden's grief as a result of her sojourn among the dead, but the story does end back in a place of warmth and light.  It's gorgeously atmospheric and enthralling, so much so it kept my mind firmly its grip, which is especially noteworthy because I read it in a single sitting while my car was failing inspection and The Price is Right blared very loudly over my head.....

The Girl in White, by Lindsay Currie

I am back from vacation--a week and a half in Montana, mostly spent volunteering with the Forest Service fixing up some old buildings at a history tree nursery, and less time visiting used bookstores.  In case anyone is interested, here is my haul (the books whose titles can't be read are Great Day in the Morning, by Florence Crannell Means, and Janine, by Robin McKown).

More books coming home than I took with me (8 ARCs, mostly mg fantasy), and I enjoyed reading them. The result is that I am now behind on reviews....so I hope to review lots in the coming week.

First up is The Girl in White, by Lindsay Currie (September 6th 2022 by Sourcebooks Young Readers), a nice ghost story with which to kick off the spooky season of Fall!

Mallory has been uprooted from Chicago to Eastport, MA--a quaint ocean town. There's a twist to the quaintness, though--the town capitalizes it reputation on being a spooky hotspot. Mallory's parents have plunged into the thick of the spooky stories, opening a restaurant in a building where a casket came tumbling out of a collapsing interior wall. The horror of it is embraced by her parents, and the restaurant is thriving, but Mallory is almost completely fed up with non-stop ghost stories all the time, and totally fed up with the town's fetishization of one legend in particular--that of Sweet Molly, whose brother Liam was lost at sea in the 19th century when the townsfolk forced him to set out on a fishing voyage (for economic reasons) in stormy weather. After he was quickly lost at sea, Molly swore she'd get revenge on the town, and now she's become one of its most popular (aka moneymaking) cursed legends.

The anniversary of Liam's death is approaching, the town is planning one of its biggest ever Sweet Molly extravagances, and Mallory, to her horror, is being haunted by Molly's ghost.  It stinks to be Mallory, sleep deprived, even less in control of her life than being uprooted, to the point where she literally is in danger (the ghost makes her sleep walk) and forced to endure all the Sweet Molly madness of the town.

Mallory can't explain away her terrifying encounters with Molly, and she has no idea how to get them to stop. Fortunately, she has good friends, one of them a earlier victim of Molly's harassment, and in a race against time, as strange and terrifying weather hits Eastport, and the climax of the festival approaches, they work together to find the true story of Molly and Liam....

The mix of very creepy ghost, local history gone out of control, and real world complexities of loyalty to family and friends make this one I'm sure will please its target audience lots! It's all woven together very well, with both the spookiness of Sweet Molly strong enough to satisfy young horror readers, and the new kid in town story satisfying those who aren't reading it for the scares.

As a grown-up reader, I appreciated that Mallory and her parents and friends were able to work through the wrinkles in their relationships with good faith and little drama. I respected the horror element of the plot; it was very vividly described in good mg horror fashion. That being said, I wondered, as I often do, why ghosts have to be so gosh darn mean when communicating with the living. If you are a ghost who can write messages in blood red paint etc. why not just be explicit? But I guess Molly's one weapon in her quest to change the narrative was her ability to terrorize....peaceful protest wasn't an option, which is an interesting thing to think about.

Which leads to what, to me, an even more interesting aspect of the book--at the heart of the plot is the need to question established narratives, and to revise accepted history. And even though this particular revision is not actually all that weighty, it does matter to Molly, and to the town. It's the sort of book that might well put thoughts into kids' heads that will lead them to become good critical thinkers as they get older, which is a good thing!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Sea of Always (Thirteen Witches #2), by Jodi Lynn Anderson, for Timeslip Tuesday

 

Yay me!  I have my Timeslip Tuesday book read--The Sea of Always (Thirteen Witches #2), by Jodi Lynn Anderson.   It's the second book in the series, and though it does a decent job standing alone, it  works better if you've read the first, and there's no reason why you wouldn't want to start at the beginning!  It has a totally unique time travel premise, as one of the characters points out:

"There have got to be lots of possible futures.  The time-travelling whales make that possible." (p 215). 

 Yes, here we have a time-travelling whale, who's graciously conveying our heroine, the young witch hunter Rosie, her best friend Germ, the ghost of a young boy, and another young witch hunter from the future, on an impossible quest through time and space.  The kids are desperately trying to save Rosie's twin brother, stolen at birth by the Time Witch, and, while they're at it, it would be really nice if they could foil the evil plot of the Time Witch and the other witches to destroy all that is good in the world.

Rosie's witch-hunting skills are still a work in progress, the witches are incredibly powerful, and the whale unpredictable.  And the Time Witch has set a clock ticking that will end Rosie's life if she doesn't win her brother back.  She can't directly confront the witches all at once, so she set off, with her companions, to steal their hearts, one by one, to destroy en masse when time runs out.

It's a desperate game of chance against horrible odds, but with determination and love, there's hope....

So the journey hunting witches, via the magical whale that transports them through the Sea of Always, is full of fun/disturbing time travel.  Fun because it's time travel, disturbing because the witches are really horrible.  The whale is perhaps the most entertaining part of the story though--it provides the characters with all the comforts and distractions it can, producing party decorations, snacks, music, and the like.  

The main strengths of the book are the vivid pictures it creates in the mind's eye, and in Rosie's inner journey--I really liked her character development.  In particular, it's great to see her, encouraged by her friends, embracing the weirdness of her imagination that makes her magic powerful.   

On the downside, with twelve witches to hunt down (the 13th was dispatched in the first book), there's a lot of travelling through time and place, during which the kids are primarily spectators of the past, and though I found it interesting, there may well be readers who will find it frustrating that there are no Big Happenings and Wild Excitement.  And I found the ending something of a let down--there's a bit of deus ex machina involved that saves the day, without which the kids would have been doomed, and all the hard work of heart stealing didn't, in the end, seem as worthwhile as I was assuming it would be.  

There's a third book coming, so of course not everything is resolved at the end of this one....I will look forward to it, even though it will probably not have time travelling whales!

Freddie vs. the Family Curse, by Tracy Badua

Freddie vs. the Family Curse, by Tracy Badua (middle grade, May 3, 2022, Clarion Books) is a great one for readers who relish the intrusion of fantasy into the real world! Freddie, the titular hero of the story, does not relish this intrusion at all, with good reason.

It was bad enough when he just had to endure the family curse of bad luck; not for nothing is he nicknamed "faceplant Freddie." But when he finds an amulet in the garage that comes with the trapped ghost of his great-great-uncle, Ramon, things get much worse than hideous embarrassment! Ramon "borrowed" the good luck amulet from his best friend, Ingo Agustin, back when they were teenagers fighting in the Philippine army in World War II. Instead of good luck, Ramon got cursed and died, and now that Freddie has the amulet, its angry spirits have turned their attention to him. He has only a few days to get the amulet back to Ingo, and get Ingo's forgiveness for Ramon, or he too will die...

Freddie is in a dreadful pickle. His great grandmother believes him (and enjoys getting the chance to hang out with her brother again), but his parents are deeply opposed to believing any Filipino folklore, and so won't help him find Ingo and get the amulet to him. Fortunately, he has his cousin Sharkey to help; she's related on the maternal side of the family, so isn't cursed with bad luck. And also fortunately, they find that Ingo's in a nursing home near Las Vegas, where Sharkey will be headed with her break dancing team for a competition. When Freddie's luck spills over and Sharkey sprains her angle, the cousins decide that Freddie (whose original audition for the team ended badly) will take her place.

Now Freddie has to overcome his penchant for disaster and learn the dance...and get across town to Ingo with just minutes to spare....

It's a great read, blending Filipino folklore and a nicely integrated bit of history that many kids will be unfamiliar with (I don't recall any mention of the Philippines in my WW II lessons) with real world struggles, making your own luck, and the cultural balancing act of multigenerational immigrant families. It's simultaneously a moving story and a funny, cring-ish one. Freddie is a character to cheer for, and Ingo's forgiveness of what Ramon did, and Freddie's ultimate success in the dance competition, bring the story to a very satisfying close!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Monsters in the Mist, by Juliana Brandt--review and interview

If you (or other young readers in your life) are looking to make spring spookier, Monsters in the Mist, by Juliana Brandt (May 3, 2022, SourcebooksKids, is just the book you need!  

Whenever Glennon's dad goes away for work, his mom moves him and his little sister out of the house.  They used to go stay with their grandma, but now she has died, and their mom has taken them to stay with a relative they've never met who's a lighthouse keeper on a remote island in Lake Superior.  Glennon counts the days till they get off the island.  

With just a few more days to go, the island is slammed by an early winter storm.  A ship wrecks on the nearby coast, and the three survivors shelter in the lighthouse.  And Glennon becomes convinced that something more than an ordinary Lake Superior tragedy has happened.  One of the survivors seems horribly...not right. 

This is right at the beginning of the book, so there is no build up of suspense--it is right there at the start!  But there is definitely build up of the creepy--things are more and more Wrong, and more impossible to explain away, until Glennon and his sister realize they are in mortal peril from supernatural forces, trapped on an island that will not let them leave.   And the gothic horror ratchets up even further to a tremendous climax with twists I didn't see coming!

As the supernatural horror builds, so does the readers understanding of the verbal abuse and anger Glennon's gotten all his life from his father; it's clear early on that he and his sister have PTSD, and that not all is well with their mother either.  Having to deal with an unbearably awful situation on the island, though, helps Glennon start to untangle himself from years of damaging undermining from his father, and this real-world positive progress is a welcome contrast to the gothic darkness crashing around the cursed island. (There's an author's note at the end, clarifying how Glennon's memories of his father's words that surface during the story are real abuse, discussing how this has affected him and his sister, and encouraging young readers in similar positions to seek help from trusted adults).

In good middle grade fashion, Glennon and his sister are the catalyst for their escape, but they couldn't have done it without grown-ups willing to put themselves at risk to make it happen.  Also as is the case with many good middle grade books, there's an intelligent cat who helps for a given value of cat-help. Both things I liked.  I also liked all the ghost ships (what a wide variety of obsolete vessels there are in the harbor these days! think the kids, more or less,  and yet no transport is available off the island....) and the nods to real maritime misfortunes of Lake Superior.  The awful undead rats swarming around the island, are, however, not likeable....

In short, though I personally would have liked a bit more about life on the island before it became a place of nightmares, to ground the story in reality before the reality explodes, Monsters in the Mist is a powerfully spooky and thought-provoking read, and one I appreciated lots, 

Monsters in the Mist is Juliana Brandt's third book, the first two being The Wolf of Cape Fen (2020) and A Wilder Magic (2021), both from SourcebooksKids.  As well as being an author, she's a kindergarten teacher with a passion for storytelling that guides her in both of her jobs. She lives in her childhood home of Minnesota, and her writing is heavily influenced by travels around the country and decade living in the South.

And now it is my pleasure to welcome her to my blog! (my questions are in bold)

What was the inspiration for Monsters in the Mist? (hopefully not a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior).

Goodness, the inspiration came from many places, although no, it definitely didn't come from a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior! I did find a lot of direct inspiration from Lake Superior itself, though, mostly from Split Rock Lighthouse - a lighthouse in Two Harbors, MN. I toured this lighthouse in October on a very blustery day. I knew immediately that I needed to use this setting for a book. I created my own version of that lighthouse and stuck it on an island that is a very real (and yet very fake!) island on Lake Superior. In the 1700s, a mapmaker drew an extra island on Lake Superior. Mapmakers kept inserting the same island on their own maps, even though no such island actually existed on the lake. It took a few decades before cartographers realized it wasn't real. I thought that history was fascinating, and it made me wonder what that island would be like if it were actually real.


What bit of the book do you hope your readers will love most, and/or perhaps be most horrified/scared about?

I hope readers love the spookiness of the story. I tried to create my own monsters for this book, and I hope they're both scary and fascinating. I wanted my monsters to be sympathetic; I wanted people to understand how they'd become so monstrous and why they'd chosen the path they had. And also that while we can be sympathetic toward the monsters, it doesn't mean that their behavior or their choices are excused. I would very much like readers to walk away with the message that the words we choose to use with one another matters deeply.

I appreciated that the town librarian specifically recommends Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, to the kids--an excellent choice. Was there a specific reason you picked this book?

Howl's Moving Castle is my absolute favorite book! It's one that's stuffed full of all the things I enjoy most about stories - magic and surprising twists and a wonderful monster. In the scene where the book is mentioned, the librarian is talking about reading what makes you happy, and for me, Howl's is a book that never fails to make me happy. I was so excited to include mention of it in my own book because of how much it's meant to me over the years.

Monsters is your first book since things are moving toward normal again, fingers crossed.... Your first book, The Wolf of Cape Fen, will always have a special place in my mind (Here's my review). Not only did I enjoy it lots, but when it came out, just a few weeks into the pandemic in the spring of 2020, it was the first book I picked to order from my local independent bookstore as a show of support for authors and indies, so I have powerful memories tied to it. What was it like, having your debut book come out at such a fraught time?

It certainly wasn't easy. The shift from planning in person events and making plans for trips and book tours to cancelling everything and switching to online events (before we really knew what online events could look like!) was a difficult transition. It certainly wasn't the experience I thought debuting would be. At the same time though, I was incredibly supported in the book community and by my friends and family. I truly felt like everyone rallied around me. It's also helped me truly appreciate everything I'm able to experience with Monsters in the mist, now that I'm able to schedule in person events again.

With your third book, are you able to get a chance to do more of the author-ish things that the pandemic shut down?

Yes! I have wonderful events planned throughout May and into the summer. This past week when Monsters in the Mist published, I was able to have my first in person book launch. It was everything I wanted to experience the first time around, and I'm so glad to have finally been able to have that! It's truly wonderful to be able to talk with people in person and celebrate books in an actual bookstore, instead of online. I have school visits and writing classes and bookstore events scheduled. It's all an absolute delight to be able to plan.  (here are her upcoming events)

and finally, what are you working on now?

Secret projects! I have a few manuscripts in the works, but as of now, they're all in the "in between" moment. Hopefully they'll become projects that I can announce publicly soon.

and even more finally, is there an interview question that you have a really good answer for that I haven't asked? 

At my bookstore event, I was asked a very good question that I've never been asked before. "How have my books changed me?" We talk about readers being changed by books, but books change authors too! I think that my books have helped me become a braver, more honest person. Writing a book is such an introspective process, for me, and with each one I write, I end up asking deep questions of myself, about who I am and who I want to be. It really can be a transformative experience.

thanks so much, Juliana!  And best of luck with your ongoing projects!  And now I shall go listen to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald--"The lake it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy..."

The Hideaway, by Pam Smy, with giveaway!

If fall puts you in the mood for haunting stories of old graveyards and ghosts, with perhaps the power of love to transcend death if only for a snatch of time, do try The Hideaway, by Pam Smy! You'll be rewarded not just with atmospheric spookiness, but with a chance to weep in public (or now that you have been warned, in private) over a sharply drawn portrait of a more ordinary sadness--this is also a story of domestic abuse.  It's told in two points of view, that of a boy, Billy, on the run from a home made toxic by his mother's abusive boyfriend, Jeff, and Billy's mother, searching for him with the help of neighbors and the authorities.  

Billy can no longer stand being helpless in the same house as Jeff any longer.  To the familiar soundtrack of  invective being spewed at his mother, with the threat of violence always present, Billy gathers together clothes and provisions (and all the sharp kitchen knives) and leaves.  Following a route he's taken in his mind a thousand times, he heads through the autumn rain for the shelter he's found for himself--an abandoned military pill box in an old cemetery.  Cold and wet, he curls himself up.

The next morning he finds he's not an alone; an old man is pottering around the grave stones.  The man, recognizing Billy as the desperate runaway he is, strikes a deal with him--if Billy will help cleaning up the overgrown graves, the man will give him a few days grace before alerting the authorities.

Meanwhile, when his mother realizes Billy has missed school, and isn't quietly up alone in his room as usual, she takes action, regardless of the consequences.  She finds help and support in the neighbors from whom she'd previously been isolated, and a search begins.

So does a chance for Billy's mum to break free from her trap, and a chance for Billy to start healing from the trauma.  And the story moves towards a heartbreaking ending when the purpose of the old man's graveyard cleaning becomes clear on All Souls day, and the dead are reunited with each other, and with the living (this is the part where I cried).

The story wraps up tidily with Jeff's arrest, and the old man's story is tied into that of Billy's family, so there's considerable hope that things will go better now (although one worries of course that Jeff, out of prison, will come back with murder in his heart...).

But in any event, slightly too tidy ending aside, it is an emotional journey of a book that I loved! So many feels.  It's being marketed as middle grade, for kids 10-13 ish (Billy's age), and though I wouldn't give it to a kid any younger than that, I can easily imagine older readers clicking with it.

The Hideaway is illustrated by the author throughout with black and white drawings, with double-page spreads at the climax of the story.  Pam Smy is a whiz with tonal and texture.  The images are melancholy, spooky, sharp with anxiety, fading into more peaceful mist. 

And here's the trailer.

A bit about the author:

Pam Smy studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, where she now lectures part-time. Pam has illustrated books by Conan Doyle, Julia Donaldson, and Kathy Henderson, among others; visit her instagram account for lots eerie goodness! Her first novel, Thornhill, was a critical and commercial success, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the UKLA Book Awards, the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018, and winning the 2018 British Book Design & Production Award for Graphic Novels. She lives in Cambridge, UK.

And now the Giveaway!

5 winners will receive a hardcover of The Hideaway!
US/UK, Giveaway ends 9/19 at 11:59pm ET

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(disclaimer: review copy and promotional links received from Media Masters Publicity)

Ophie's Ghosts, by Justina Ireland

Ophie's Ghosts (May 2021 by Balzer + Bray) is Justina Ireland's first middle grade book, and it is a lovely immersive read, blending ghosts and a murder mystery with the daily life of a very real and relatable girl. 

Ophelia's life was upended in November, 1922, when her home in Georgia was burned by a white mob, and her father killed; he'd voted, which in the Jim Crow south was a dangerous thing for a black man to do.  But Ophie and her mother escaped unharmed, thanks to her father coming to her as a ghost to warn her.  She didn't know he was a ghost till later...and she didn't know that she'd start to see other ghosts.

Moving in with Aunt Rose and a family of cousins up north in Pittsburgh was the only think Ophie's mother could do, and now Ophie has to go to work instead of school.  Her job is to look after a demanding and unpleasant rich white woman in her grand home, Daffodil Manor.  It turns out the manor is full of ghosts, some self-absorbed, others with whom she can speak.  Once of them, Clara, even becomes a friend....But Aunt Rose can also see haints, and warns Ophie against ever trusting one.  

Ophie's desire to help her ghostly friend is so strong, though, that she sets out to uncover the mystery of her death.  She finds a story of passion, racial prejudice, and, she begins to suspect, murder...and unwittingly she gives Clara herself the power to take matters into her own ghostly hands.  But a ghost with power, as Aunt Rose warned, is a danger to everyone around it....and things get scary.

I sat down to start reading, and when I got up again I'd been sitting so long in one position it was hard to walk, a sign of a very good read!  With books like this I kind of forget I'm actually reading, because the words are going into to my head so fast and seamlessly that I am seeing the story not the typed letters.  Ophie is one of those fictional characters who seems truly real.  I warmed to her innate compassion, and my heart ached for her at many points in the story as she dealt with the racist realities of her life, her grief over her father and her lost hope for an education, and her worries for her mother.  The book is full of minor characters, dead and alive, who have their own vivid bits of story, adding considerable interest, tugging the heartstrings, and even providing a bit of light relief.

It's not a "horror story" (the real horror being not ghosts, but the human evil with which the story begins), and things only get  supernaturally scary at the climax towards the end.  But it is very spooky, and the horrible house full of ghosts is a ghastly place, so there's probably enough to satisfy young readers who love atmospheric creepiness.   Offer it to readers who enjoyed Victoria Schwab's City of Ghosts, or readers who like stories of plucky orphans in horrible jobs (of course, Ophie still has a mother who loves her, but one who's withdrawn from her somewhat because of grief and worry, so she felt orphan-adjacent to me, and the cover has this vibe too), and since it's top notch historical fiction as well as a ghost story, it's a great educational introduction to racism in the US in the 1920s (I learned more history from children's books than I did in the classroom, though mostly about Roman and medieval England....I'd love to be able to offer this one to 10 year old me, who also liked orphans and ghosts...and who knew nothing about racism in America in the early 20th century).

short answer--highly recommended, and I hope Justine Ireland writes more middle grade!

Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff

2021 is full of great mg sci fi and fantasy books, as the substantial pile of books (around 14) I have checked out from my library demonstrates.  Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff, (April 20th 2021 by Dial Books) isn't, though, one I got from the library; it wasn't in my library system yet*, so I bought it with my own money as my new book for June (1 a month is sadly all I allow myself to buy). I was not disappointed with my investment in future me's rereading pleasure. This is an outstanding book.

Bug's beloved Uncle Roderick has just died, at the much too young age of thirty-two.   He moved to the old (quite possibly haunted) family house in rural Vermont to live with Bug's mom when her husband died and Bug was just a little baby, giving up his own life in New York as a drag queen, and he was incredibly dear to both of them.  Now it's just the two of them, and Bug's mom card designing work isn't bringing enough in to cover all the medical bills...

On top of that sadness and worry, Bug's best/only real friend, Moira, is leaping toward middle school and wants to bring Bug with her into a world of clothes and make-up and growing up.  Bug sees Moira is on her way to becoming a woman, but feels unable to enthusiastically follow that path, feeling more like a shadow, or a doll, or someone just going through the motions.  Bug is in the habit of narrating life as a servant girl, or a princess, or other flights of imagination, trying on different types of girl-ness, but nothing seems right. 

"Trying to picture myself as a teenage girl is like staring at the sun, too bright to see, and it hurts."

Bug's house is undeniably spooky, with cold spots and strange noises, and reflections in the mirror that look like strangers.  But this summer more active hauntings begin (poltergeist-ness, Ouija board strangeness, creepy dreams, and strange voices), building up to the undeniable fact that Uncle Roderick still cares about Bug, and is trying to communicate something awfully important.

Bug isn't a girl, but a boy.

And when he realizes that, everything falls into place in his mind.  His mom is supportive, Moira, and even the other girls in Moira's circle of friends, are cool with it, and the new middle-school also takes it comfortably in stride.  It is a happy ending; even the card designing business picks up.

So the ghost part of the story makes this fantasy, and there is some creepy tension from the haunting, but it is mainly the story of a lonely, sad kid experiencing gender-dysphoria, and then relief from realizing what he is feeling, and finaly the peace that comes when he can act on those feelings.  It's a really moving story, and I so appreciated that Bug's realization that he is a boy wasn't a traumatic disaster.  For kids who are themselves trans, it will, I think, be a great comfort have Bug's story in their minds, and for kids who aren't trans, but ready to be allies, it will help them understand gender dysphoria and be supportive of their friends.  

If you are thinking this sounds not wildly relatable, stop!  We all go through the process of adolescence, figuring out who the heck we are, perhaps with others around us seeming to be racing along the path to growing up, and our bodies becoming strange, and the face in the mirror changing.  Like Bug, I myself still try to make sense of my life through third-person narration...and still feel I'm acting a part when I wear fancy clothes and makeup (which isn't often).  Though of course for Bug, and other trans kids, this is all at a different level of magnitude.  

In any event, I liked it lots, cared about the characters, enjoyed the sensory experience of reading it, and think it's an important and moving book!

If you want a second opinion, here's a glowing review from Fuse #8.  Betsy and I don't always overlap in our opinions, but this time we do!

*(just checked--there are now 9 copies, with two more being processed, in RI; 8 are checked out).

 

Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, by Dianne K. Salerni

The good thing about being a Cybils panelist is reading lots and lot of great new books; the bad thing (if you are me, which I am) is not having enough time to review as you go because you are reading! So there are a bunch of books I'd like to review at some point....and for one I liked very much indeed, that time is now.

Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, by Dianne K. Salerni (Holiday House, 2020), is a truly delightful historical fantasy, about young Eleanor Roosevelt, her cousin Alice, and some assorted ghosts. Young Eleanor is a lonely child, whose strict grandmother is giving her no chance to flower into the strong, smart woman she's destined to be. Alice isn't lonely, but she's ticked off that her father, Teddy Roosevelt, has sent her to New York to stay with an aunt and uncle.

This isn't quite our own New York--in the world of the book, ghosts are very real, and there are lots of them, with concomitant established ways of dealing with them. Some are harmless, and considered Friendly, but some are deadly. Eleanor's grandmother doesn't like her associating with the Roosevelts, but Eleanor and Alice, uncertain of their friendship at first, and very different in character, manage to become allies when a ghost pops up in the aunt and uncle's house. It seems friendly....but when the girls start investigating it, they find more than they bargained for. There are dark secrets in Alice's family; the house her parents lived in is now closed up because it is infested by the most dangerous type of ghost there is, a Vengeful. But both girls are curious and brave, and for Alice, in particular, danger means little.

What starts as a lighthearted investigation becomes something more dreadful and serious, and it almost all ends up going horribly wrong in a really heart wrenching way.

If you liked the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud, do give this a try! Lockwood is perhaps grimmer in details, and this is a story more focused on the two girls and their feelings, but there's a similar ghost hunting vibe (although it's slightly more scientific here--Tesla, for instance, has come up with a ghost hunting invention). The characters are great; not just the two main girls but a large supporting cast of Roosevelt cousins. Though it's a fantastic late 19th century New York, the social details are accurate, and it might well get young readers interest in the real history of Eleanor and Alice and co.


It is lots of fun, with considerable suspense and emotional wrenching towards the end, and I am so glad it got its Cybils nomination so that I ended up reading it!

A Stitch in Time, by Kelley Armstrong, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book, A Stitch in Time, by Kelley Armstrong (October 2020, Subterranean Press), is one for grown-ups--along with time travel, there's a pretty hot romance (at least, I guess it's hot, but I don't know what the standard for these things is these days...), ghost story, and murder mystery.

When Bronwyn, a widowed history professor in her late 30s, inherits the old family house in Yorkshire, she is happy to leave Toronto for the summer to revisit this place she loved as a child but never visited after she was 15.  That year, there was a tragedy, and Bronwyn never went back.  But she never forgot her visits there, visits in which she played with her best friend William, and later, began to think of him as more than just a friend.

There was one small snag about this friendship--William lived in the 19th century, and no one believed that Bronwyn was traveling back in time to visit him.

So there she is, in this big old house, with memories both horrible and happy, still missing her husband something fierce....and she travels back to William's time again.  And their relationship, now one between two consenting adults, heads up pretty briskly.

The ghostly hauntings of the house also heat up.  Soon Bronwyn has become aware of four different ghosts in the house...and has to figure out what happened to them so she can lay them to rest (fortunately there's a wise woman in the local village who helps her figure out that this is what she needs to do...).  It's a lovely creepy mystery that's connected to William and his family, brining these two parts of the story nicely together.  

William and Bronwyn's romance was a bit much for my taste (it seemed too easy, but that could be explained by their shared past), but it made them happy, so good for them.  It was fun, from a time travel point of view, to see a historian of the 19th century appreciating the past directly, and interesting to see the two of them working out the complication of living in different times...neither assumes that Bronwyn would want to leave the 21st century to live in the 19th full time, so points to William for that!  And the ghosts really were nicely spooky.  There was also a time travelling kitten, which was a nice bonus. 

The house never became real to my mind's eye though, which was disappointing. because I love thick description of old houses and gardens.  I quickly rejected the Victorian house on the cover; I do not think there is anything remotely like that in rural Yorkshire (or even urban, where I lived for a year).  And I'm not convinced that Kelley Armstrong has ever stripped really old wood; like the romance, and even like the mystery solving, it all seems a tad too easy-- "There are few things in home renovation as satisfying as removing paint, watching long strips slough off in ribbons, revealing the gorgeous wood beneath." (p. 222).  Latex paint over varnished wood does this to a certain extent, but lead based paint (which I bet is what she's dealing with) does not, and the wood looks like crap until you put lots more work into it, and page 222 was a ways into her summer vacation and there's no way she's going to get it done before she goes back to Toronto....I have been stripping paint in my own house for 20 years now, and am perhaps bitter. Am also not convinced that the small Yorkshire village would sell paint stripper.

But it's pretty clear Armstrong enjoyed writing the book, and it's an enjoyable read, though not one I fell hard for.

The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf

The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf (middle grade, Harper Collins, August 2020), was on my radar for ages, but this year I've been having a hard time reading (mindless computer game playing dulls my sense more than reading provides an escape), and it took reading for the Cybils Awards for me to get to it (this incentivizing is one reason I like being a Cybils panelist so much). Once I started reading it, it replaced my feelings of nebulous dread and depression with other feelings, lots of them.....(in a good way!), and transported me on a spooky trip to Malaysia.

Here's the first line--“The ghost knew his master was about to die, and he wasn’t exactly unhappy about it.” The witch's blood, which once filled this spirit, a pelesit, with magic, has grown thin, and though he didn't have any ethical qualms about carrying out the malicious errands she used to send him on, he is read for a change. And so when she dies, he sets out to find his new master, who must be someone of the same bloodline, with the same magic within them. That someone is the witch's baby granddaughter, Suraya.

When Suraya becomes aware of the pelesit, she welcomes his friendship, and names him Pink, the sort of name her stuffed animals have. Her mother is cold and distant, and Suraya is a lonely child, and so Pink becomes her inseparable companion as she grows up. Pink, though he's a spirit made for nasty mischief, grows to love Suraya, and would do anything to keep her safe and happy. But when Suraya makes friends with another girl, Jing, and finds happiness outside of Pink, he is consumed by angry jealousy. And since a pelesit has no moral compass, he persecutes Jing. Though Suraya then shuts Pink out of her life, she can't cut all ties with him--they are bound by blood. Finally in desperation she turns to her mother for help, and her mother, for pretty much the first time ever, is there for her.

But when her mother brings in a pawing hantu, a man who can capture spirits, Suraya can't go through with consigning Pink to his custody. And her instincts are sound in this--he is not collecting spirits for altruistic reasons. Suraya and Jing, and Pink, agree to find their way back to the place where Pink was created by the witch, and lay him to peaceful rest. The pawing hantu pursues them, with his own small army of spirits, and in the cemetery where Pink was made, things almost go horribly wrong before all is set right....

My heart ached for Suraya so much. This is a powerful exploration of loneliness and friendship, and though Pink and Suraya's relationship is toxic in many ways, and Pink's jealousy almost spoils it entirely, there is still genuine love between them. Likewise, though Suraya and her mother have a terrible relationship, there's still enough of a bond between them that there's hope they will move forward with love. And Jing is simply a great friend, with nothing toxic about her at all!

People and places, ghosts and graveyards, all become vividly real. It's not a comfort read, but it is a gripping and immersive one, and middle school kids, with all the angst of that age group, will find much to relate too.