Horror, suspense, and family history collide with marvelously scary results.
A boy teams up with his mother’s spirit to investigate a neighborhood mystery.
Sam’s mother, who was of South Asian descent, died when he was a baby. He’s learned about her mostly from her MySpace page, a digital document of her youth. Visiting his maternal grandmother in Singapore, he embraces the opportunity to see his mother’s childhood home firsthand. But it isn’t what he imagined. Despite Singapore’s balmy climate, the cul-de-sac is gray and chilly, and the house overflows with a “dizzying mess” of memories. Soon, he’s seeing ghosts—one of them is his mother, frozen in time at 12 years old, who guides him through the world she left behind. Home alone (ghosts notwithstanding) while his grandmother works, Sam explores a derelict factory. A horrifying game of hide-and-seek in its dark recesses leaves him with a maggot-covered cat skeleton on his lap, and, with a mix of fear and fascination, he accepts his mission to discover what’s behind the shadows lurking over the neighborhood. The stakes intensify as Sam’s investigations deepen and he encounters threats both paranormal and human-made. Hossain’s prose is compellingly moody, building suspense slowly while engaging readers on every page. Gothic settings, spectral attacks that leave Sam physically bruised, and eerie elements of South Asian mythology provide thrills for those seeking serious scares but may overwhelm more tender-hearted readers. Sam is cued biracial (his father presents white).
Horror, suspense, and family history collide with marvelously scary results. (Horror. 10-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9780823462353
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.
Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map.
A girl who delights in the macabre harnesses her inherited supernatural ability.
It’s not just her stark white hair that makes 11-year-old Zee Puckett stand out in nowheresville Knobb’s Ferry. She’s a storyteller, a Mary Shelley fangirl, and is being raised by her 21-year-old high school dropout sister while their father looks for work upstate (cue the wayward glances from the affluent demography). Don’t pity her, because Zee doesn’t acquiesce to snobbery, bullying, or pretty much anything that confronts her. But a dog with bleeding eyes in a cemetery gives her pause—momentarily—because the beast is just the tip of the wicked that has this way come to town. Time to get some help from ghosts. The creepy supernatural current continues throughout, intermingled with very real forays into bullying (Zee won’t stand for it or for the notion that good girls need to act nice), body positivity, socio-economic status and social hierarchy, and mental health. This debut from a promising writer involves a navigation of caste systems, self-esteem, and villainy that exists in an interesting world with intriguing characters, but they receive a flat, two-dimensional treatment that ultimately makes the book feel like one is learning a ho-hum lesson in morality. Zee is presumably White (as is her rich-girl nemesis–cum-comrade, Nellie). Her best friend, Elijah, is cued as Black. Warning: this just might spur frenzied requests for Frankenstein.
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map. (Supernatural. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304460-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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