Arriving with their oft-wedded but currently single mom in Limbo Key, Fla., when their car dies, Courtney and little brother Bucky are not pleased with their rental on Cemetery Street. No money means using castoffs and even stumps to furnish the place, and the cemetery next door is gloomy. Bucky wants a puppy, Courtney wants high school to be bearable and their mother seems to be unable to focus, as does this book. For a 15-year-old, Courtney reads very young, and her love interest, the handsome, popular Josh, rapidly falls for her in spite of the dog doo she accidentally wears on her sandals on her first day of school. While a prologue about being in a tomb promises a super-scary story, the lighthearted humor in Courtney’s voice contradicts this, resulting in a mishmash that will satisfy few. Bucky’s first dog meets a gruesome end and there are hints about Satanic involvement, but these elements clash with the apparent main plot of new-girl-moves-to-town-and-conquers-all-she-encounters-with-guts. (Fiction. 10-14)
