The Secret Dead Club

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Author(s)

Karen Strong

Publisher

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

August 20, 2024

ISBN

978-1665904506

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The Baby-Sitters Club meets Stranger Things in this eerie middle grade novel about friendship, fitting in, and the afterlife, following a girl who discovers she’s not the only one at her new school who can see ghosts.

Wednesday Thomas sees ghosts. But that doesn’t mean she has to talk to them.

After a terrifying experience in an Arizona state park with a wicked ghost, Wednesday and her mother Olivia sell their RV and move back south to the family home in Alton, Georgia. Wednesday’s determined not to use her gift anymore—until she meets a group of girls who also know about the spirit realm.

There’s free-spirited Miki Okada and Southern belle Danni-Lynn Porter who seem to know about the ghosts who roam the school’s hallways, popular girl Alexa Scott who tells Wednesday to stay away from Miki and Danni-Lynn and not draw attention to herself, and mysterious neighbor Violet Delgado who died last year but still haunts the house across the street. Wednesday feels these girls have some kind of shared history, but it isn’t until Miki gives her an official invitation to the Dead Club that she starts to understand there’s a lot more going on with the ghosts in Alton and the girls who can see them.

And when another malevolent ghost threatens to harm Wednesday, it will take the help of new friends both living and dead to save her and banish the evil being to the spirit realm where it belongs.

Editor review

1 review

Friends don't let friends fight ghosts alone

September 02, 2024

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

It goes without saying that if a middle grade character moves, chances are very good that it will be into a house that is haunted. I liked that this had a bit of a twist, with Callahan House being a home that had been in the family since 1966, with protections in place for paranormal activity because of the inherited predisposition towards being attuned to it. I was glad that Miki and Danni-Lynn were welcoming, even though they were still grieving their friend. The official book, on which the club members have to swear their allegiance, is Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes! The mother and family friends were around enough when Wednesday needed them, but distracted enough that she could have a little freedom. This got a bit scary at the end, with murderous ghosts running rampant, but that's what my middle school students like.

There was an intriguing bit dropped about Olivia's grandmother being one of the first Black owners of property in the neighborhood is 1966; I would have enjoyed learning more about this period in history and the experience of a neighborhood being integrated.

Extremely sensitive readers might be bothered by Caleb's death, which was fairly brutal, and I can see this being a bit much for younger readers.

What's better than killer ghosts in a new house? A group of friends that help you deal with the killer ghosts. This was a great combination of scary and friend drama, and should inspire a few Secret Dead Clubs among It's readers! It's a great choice for morbid middle school readers who enjoyed Senf's The Clackity, Poblocki's Ghost Hunter's Daughter, or Young's What Stays Buried.

Good Points

Wednesday has always seen ghosts, and has spent her childhood helping them move on, but when an evil ghost attacks her in Arizona, where she and her artist mother Olivia are living in a travel trailer, her mother decides it would be safer to come home to the Callahan House is Alton, Georgia. Wednesday's father is doing a medical residency in London, and her parents are divorced. The house was where Olivia grew up. She was raised by her grandmother, after her mother perished in a fire, and the grandmother worked as a spiritualist. The house has been haunted since the 1940s by Caleb Callahan, whose father was possessed by a ghost and killed Caleb and his sister, but Caleb is a banisher, who can dispatch ghosts. This is all news to Wednesday, who is understandably a bit shaken by the evil ghost experience. Normally, she would be fine seeing ghosts at school and in the neighborhood, but now she is wary of teacher Laura Tarkington, who was killed in a car accident, and Violet, who lived across the street and died of meningitis. The girls at school are friendly, and Miki Okada and Danni-Lynn Porter invite her to eat lunch with them. When the two figure out that Wednesday can see ghosts, they invite her to their secret group, which only discusses group business off school grounds. It's the "secret dead club" and they need Wednesday because they had a falling out with the previous medium, Alexa, who has warned Wednesday away from the group. Not only that, but Violet was the medium before that. Something is up with Violet's ghost, and the girls realize that she is trapped in her house, when the Leehans now live. Luckily, they are on vacation and Olivia's friend Jasmine is watching the house and has the keys. Will Wednesday and her friends be able to get rid of the evil ghost who has Violet in its clutches, and generally smooth over the problems with the local spirits?