sreddous's review
4.0
First off -- thank you so much to the author for autographing my copy, that's such a cool touch that makes this goodreads-giveaway more exciting!!
This is a fun middle-grade ghost story! I like the variety of ghosts we meet, which helps us know that not all ghosts are good or evil. Mrs. Wilson is a fun character and I like the setting of New Orleans as it's used here. There's a good balance of kids taking things into their own hands and being the heroes, and also, of parent/adult figures who aren't totally careless too. Good teamwork!
I think a few things could be tightened up to keep things as exciting as they could be. Without spoiling much, some things get a bit formulaic. I found myself thinking, "Aw, c'mon, don't take me out of the encounter, I wanted to talk to the ghosts more" -- we really often have an action-packed and scary encounter with a ghost, but then Alex passes out before we can get too far, and then Alex wakes up in a different location and the encounter is over. This order of operations happens at least four or five times, and this isn't a long book. Even going into act three where we're seeing more suspicious behavior from ghosts like Alice which is great and we see Hannah and Jason start using cool equipment, we still have to have Alex encounter a ghost, pass out, and wake up in a hospital. Things like this could be tweaked to not interrupt what's otherwise really-suspenseful action and keep things moving.
Overall this is fun. Definitely recommend especially for middle-grade readers who want to see some cool paranormal stuff, I would have ADORED this as a, say, fifth grader.
This is a fun middle-grade ghost story! I like the variety of ghosts we meet, which helps us know that not all ghosts are good or evil. Mrs. Wilson is a fun character and I like the setting of New Orleans as it's used here. There's a good balance of kids taking things into their own hands and being the heroes, and also, of parent/adult figures who aren't totally careless too. Good teamwork!
I think a few things could be tightened up to keep things as exciting as they could be. Without spoiling much, some things get a bit formulaic. I found myself thinking, "Aw, c'mon, don't take me out of the encounter, I wanted to talk to the ghosts more" -- we really often have an action-packed and scary encounter with a ghost, but then Alex passes out before we can get too far, and then Alex wakes up in a different location and the encounter is over. This order of operations happens at least four or five times, and this isn't a long book. Even going into act three where we're seeing more suspicious behavior from ghosts like Alice which is great and we see Hannah and Jason start using cool equipment, we still have to have Alex encounter a ghost, pass out, and wake up in a hospital. Things like this could be tweaked to not interrupt what's otherwise really-suspenseful action and keep things moving.
Overall this is fun. Definitely recommend especially for middle-grade readers who want to see some cool paranormal stuff, I would have ADORED this as a, say, fifth grader.
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