Saturday, October 1, 2016

31 Days of Halloween: Ghostsitter by Shelly Brown



Future House Publishing; 262 pages; $14.98; Amazon
I've been a big fan of any film or novel that has a supernatural settings ever since I first saw the Ghostbusters on VHS when it originally came out in the mid 1980s. I might have been young (3 or 4 years old at time), but I clearly remembered watching the movie. Since then, any book or movie with the word "Ghost" in the title gets my automatic attention; which is one of the reasons why I wanted to read the newest middle-grade novel - "Ghostsitter" by Shelly Brown.

To be completely honest, I received an ARC copy several months ago (April or May), so I had to reread it before I wrote this review.

Ghostsitter centers on Tiffany Hart, a twelve-year-old who for some reason or another agreed to hop in a van with three of her classmates (Justin, Jessica, Mario) in the middle of the night. Oh, don't worry, Justin's older sister Kori is the one driving them.

Where are they going in the middle of the night?

Well, they're going to Gravity Hill to be ghost hunters. It seems there is a legend about an elementary school bus in the 1950s that slid off the road and overturned into the water. All the children on bus were supposedly killed. Over the years, people have claimed to have seen ghost children around the area.

Sadly, their night doesn't go as planned when Tiffany has a sudden asthma attack.

The Good News - Tiffany makes a quick a recovery and is able to return to Antioch Junior High School, where she is planning on running for student body president.

The Bad News - Three ghost children begin to haunt Tiffany!

Final Thought: There's nothing like a good ghost story to get you in the mood for Halloween, and that's exactly what Ghostsitter did for me yesterday when I reread the book. The plot is a blend of a Goosebumps book and a Point Horror thriller, involving a junior high student who is haunted by several ghost children. With the help of her friends, she must figure out the identities of these children and how they died. Plus, there's also a white witch, which I'm not going to go into details as I don't want to give away too many spoilers.

The novel switches back and forth between two point-of-views - Tiffany's and Justin's. At first I thought the narration switch was a little annoying, but eventually I got use it.

Overall, Ghostsitter is a well-written horror novel for middle-grader, though I'm sure many adults will enjoy reading it as well. I had fun reading it (twice), and I'm sure other readers will like it too.



*I received a complimentary copy from the publisher for my honest review and they are 100% my own opinions. I received no other compensation for this review and I am not required to give a positive review. I am also not associated with the publisher or author in any way.

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