Review Detail

Lily is a total drama queen. Her antics though went terribly wrong back in her Colorado hometown. Bad enough that her father felt they needed a fresh start. They move clear across the country to Florida to an old abandoned house with lots of secrets. Secrets that might involve a ghost who wants Lily and her family to leave.

What worked: Creepy twist on the usual ghost tale. Who doesn't wonder about abandoned houses? When I was nine years old my cousins found one such house and our imaginations ran wild about why anyone would leave a house with everything still in it. In MINE the author shows Lily moving to a house littered with tons of trash and secrets. I really liked how readers see Lily's experience with having to move and with each cleaning of the house, more secrets come to light.

There's hints about why Lily's family had to move throughout the book. We know that Lily loves drama and has a tendency to exaggerate things. Only in this case when spooky things start happening to her and later to Rachel, a neighborhood girl, no one believes Lily. Her own father calls her a drama queen. I really felt bad for Lily.

And there are some creepy unexplained things that go on inside Lily's house. Add to that finding books in her room addressed to a Britney; tons of Amazon boxes; a lost dog named Buddy who apparently used to live at the house; and even creepier? A paranormal game that the girls find under a stair.

Good pacing and enough tension to have readers wondering who lived in the house? And finally, why is Britney haunting Lily?

Spooky ghost tale that also shows healing and moving past old wrongs. Fans of Victoria Schwab's CITY OF GHOSTS are sure to enjoy.