Review Detail

This book is awesome! It is everything that a ghost story should be. I am so glad that everyone else in the book club was too chicken to read this one and it fell to me.

This cover perfectly captures the eeriness of The Ghost of Graylock. The suspense I felt on some pages was intense. My heart raced and my throat felt tight. It was great! I really did not think a middle grades novel could deliver that much suspense.

Obviously, the majority of the book centers around a ghost story. That story is pretty crazy. The threads slowly unraveled throughout the book. It was a nice, steady unraveling. I didn't figure out the outcome until a few pages before the characters (big perk). A+ for plot line and creepiness.

But what I really liked about this book is the emotional haunting Neil faces that flickers just below the surface. There were many issues with his family that he has to come to terms with, and it's not an easy thing to do. He faces many emotions that children from divorced families face, and he handles those emotions with such believability. I was highly impressed. I read another book on the Sunshine State Reader list for this year that boasted a ghost story/coming of age tale. I did not like that book too much. It felt way too busy for my tastes. However, I think The Ghost of Graylock really hit the mark.