Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward    320 pages 

 Excellent book!   A family's tale through three generations growing up in Mississippi and the racism they were forced to endure.   Encounters so intense that the ghosts of the tortured can't leave, they come back and try hard to connect with the living.    Maybe it is the hurt within each life the ghosts sense and reach out to, the mourning, the grief, the remembering as tales are told and shared down through the generations.   Many individuals, each with problems that feel like mountains to climb without direction on how to get to the top.   A young man, JoJo is the center of the story but the past clings on him as he helps his grandparents raise his sister until the day his mother shows back up with another boyfriend and why are the ghosts contacting JoJo?   Hasn't he got enough to deal with?   Lots revolves around the State Penitentiary and the many men who spent time there.    So much sadness to overcome but a brilliantly told story.    I highly recommend this book.   It is a gripping story that will remain with the reader.   Great character development on all the souls involved and the nurturing spirits of grandparents standing in with all the love that parents ought to be giving.    Well told tale.   I have to go with this being a mature young adult or maybe adult book given that the themes can be so utterly horrifying to think about then to be able to continue reading beyond those points.  Definite recommended reading.

Three Purgatory Poems

Three Purgatory Poems: The Gast of Gy, Sir Owain, The Vision of Tundale, edited by Edward E Foster, 254 pages

This book collects three fourteenth century poems involving Purgatory and the bonds of love which connect the living and the dead.  In "The Gast of Gy" the titular gast (ghost) haunts his wife until she seeks help from the local Dominicans, who interrogate the spirit about his place in the afterlife and provide him with their prayers of assistance.  "Sir Owain" is a romance about a 12th century English knight who travels through a mystical Irish cave to Purgatory.  "The Vision of Tundale" tells the story of a crooked merchant who has what moderns would call a near-death experience in which his guardian angel gives him a tour of the afterlife, a tale the Latin original of which may have helped inspire Dante.

The texts are presented in Middle English (although some are themselves translations of older poems), with marginal notes when the language is sufficiently different from Modern English that such help is likely to be necessary and longer notes at the end of each work to more fully explain difficult passages.  The result is a text which maximizes both readability and clarity, making the original works accessible without burying them in commentary or rewriting them entirely.

School of The Dead

School of The Dead by Avi, 276 pages

Tony’s great uncle Charlie is a little odd, but when he comes to live with Tony’s family, Tony realizes he’s fun too. Uncle Charlie wants to communicate with the spirit world and Tony is willing to humor him.  When Uncle Charlie dies, Tony is devastated, but a little excited to move to San Francisco from Connecticut to go to Charlie’s old school, the Penda School.  Penda looks more like house since it was donated by Mrs. Penda years ago, after the death of her son, but why did Tony see faces in the windows on a Sunday?  Why is there a boy in his class that looks exactly like Mrs. Penda’s dead son?  And why does Tony keep seeing his Uncle Charlie everywhere?  A girl in Tony’s class, Jessica, thinks that he has been touched by death, and that he may be in danger.  She thinks they need to destroy the Penda Boy’s ghost, before something terrible happens.  This was a really good story for elementary students who like horror and ghost stories.  I would highly recommend it.

The Girl In The Locked Room

TheGirl In The Locked Room by Mary Downing Hahn, 193 pages

The girl can’t remember her name or how long she has been in the room.  She just knows that she is locked in and that she is lonely.  Jules is lonely too.  Her family moves all of the time so she is always the new girl and never has enough time to really make friends.  She hopes that this move will let them stay a while, although the house that her father is renovating is spooky.  She really believes that it might be haunted, especially since she starts seeing people that couldn’t possibly be there.  When a new friend, Maisie, tells her that everyone thinks the house is haunted by a family that was murdered there, Jules knows she was right.  The question is, what do the ghosts want? And can Jules do anything about it?  This is not as scary as some ghost stories.  The ghost isn’t very scary at all, but the story itself has a pretty good creepy factor.  I enjoyed it and most kids who like ghost or scary stories will enjoy it.

The Empty Grave

The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud, 437 pages

“Five months after the events in THE CREEPING SHADOW, we join Lockwood, Lucy, George, Holly, and their associate Quill Kipps on a perilous night mission: they have broken into the booby-trapped Fittes Mausoleum, where the body of the legendary psychic heroine Marissa Fittes lies. Or does it? This is just one of the many questions to be answered in Book 5 of the Lockwood & Co. series. Will Lockwood ever reveal more about his family's past to Lucy? Will their trip to the Other Side leave Lucy and Lockwood forever changed? Will Penelope Fittes succeed in shutting down their agency forever? The young agents must survive attacks from foes both spectral and human before they can take on their greatest enemy in a climactic and chaotic battle. And to prevail they will have to rely on help from some surprising--and shadowy--allies. Jonathan Stroud once again delivers a rousing adventure full of danger, laughs, twists, and frights. The revelations will send readers back to Book 1 to start the series all over again.” Sadly, this is the last book in the series.  I absolutely love Stroud’s writing and these books are perfect for anyone who likes adventure and supernatural stories with a little humor.  I love to recommend these to teens.

Before the Devil Breaks You: The Diviner Series Book #3

Before the Devil Breaks You: The Diviner Series Book #3 by Libba Bray        AudioBook: 21 hrs, 26 mins       Hardback Book: 560 pages             

OMgosh!   I love this series.    I am so happy to find out today that while it was originally said there were 3 books in this series turns out there will be 4!   Yippee!   I love this series.   Libba Bray you open the door to the authentic Roaring 20s!   The language and slang of the time is spoken so genuinely, reader, you will feel like you have been transported back in time.    The core characters are so real and believable, you come to feel so close to them you can’t wait to find out what happens to them next.   Glad Mabel found love.   I’m just saying… in this book the dead are chomping at the bits, the bits of people they can snatch up and eat that is!   Man, for entities that say they want people to remember them, that is a hair-raising way to get attention!    The group spends some time in a mental institution out on Ward’s island in a storm can’t you just feel the rain and wind, geez!   And a poor Irish Lad who does his best to keep the ghosties away by constantly counting being sure to leave out the number 6 because it is bad.   The Diviners hone their particular skills and like many groups of superheroes before them find there is strength in their power when they join together to fight the common enemy – the King of Crows.    Things bubble up and boil over with our heroes all on the same page but everyone pursuing a unique path – hold on cause your head may spin by the end of this one.   Halleluiah there is another book coming!   LOVED IT!!!   LOVE THE SERIES!!!   EVERYBODY READ IT I RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE! 

 - Shirley J.

Lair of Dreams

Lair of Dreams: A Diviners Novel (Book 2 in the Diviners Series) by Libba Bray       AudioBook:  20 hours, 13 minutes      Hardback book:  624 pages            

Diviner, Evie O’Neill is back again for more cavorting with the psychic realm – this time with ghosts.    GOOD BOOK!   It grabs you from beginning to end just like the first book in this series.  Just excellent story.    You get to dream walk in this one, too.    I am starting to worry about Evie becoming an alcoholic, though,  she loves that bathub hooch way too much.   More information comes out about Sam, not to mention the rumor in the media that he and Evie are engaged!    All this is happening while people all over the city are dying from a mysterious Sleeping Sickness.     Jam-packed with so many side stories on all the original characters, Libba Bray lets the reader deeper into everyone’s past, their secrets and throws in some cliffhangers for the next and last book in the series.    This story is so good, I can’t begin to tell you.    Do yourself a favor and read this one – there is so much material here and all of it is juicy.    Mabel even gets a turn at love.    A new character is introduced to the core ensemble and I can’t wait to get ahold of the 3^rd book in the series.     I wish this story would go on forever, because, I love the way the speak with the 1920’s slang it is so fun and just adds such delight to the characters.    Bravo Libba Bray!   Standing ovation and 3 curtain calls for this delight of a book and series.   I LOVE IT!    Highly recommend this one to all.   It is culturally and socially diverse and so full of emotion.   Book 3 here I come!

 - Shirley J.

Unearthly Things

Unearthly Things by Michelle Gagnon, 278 pages

“After losing her parents in a tragic accident, surfer girl Janie Mason is forced to trade the sunny beaches of Hawaii for the cold fog of San Francisco. She's never even met her new guardians, the Rochesters - an old money family who relish being pillars of high society. Janie feels hopelessly out of place in their world of Napa weekends, fancy prep schools, and cotillions. But something isn't right in the Rochester mansion. There are noises - screams - coming from the attic nearly every night. Noises everyone else claims they can't hear.” This was a creepy but awesome story.  Although it is a loose retelling of Jane Eyre, I liked it much better than the original.  I ended up bored with Jane as an adult in the original story, but this moves much more quickly and held my attention much more.  I would give this to any teen who likes horror or magical realism.

Eleventh Grave In Moonlight

Eleventh Grave InMoonlight by Darynda Jones, 310 pages

“A typical day in the life of Charley Davidson involves cheating husbands, errant wives, missing people, philandering business owners, and, oh yeah...demons, hell hounds, evil gods, and dead people. Lots and lots of dead people. As a part time Private Investigator and full-time Grim Reaper, Charley has to balance the good, the bad, the undead, and those who want her dead. Now, Charley is learning to make peace with the fact that she is a goddess with all kinds of power and that her own daughter has been born to save the world from total destruction. But the forces of hell are determined to see Charley banished forever to the darkest corners of another dimension. With the son of Satan himself as her husband and world-rocking lover, will Charley be able to defeat the ultimate evil and find a way to have her happily ever after after all?” This series is always fun and this book is no exception.  There is sex and violence. Sometimes the sex is great and the violence can get gory. The best part of these books, in my opinion, however, is the humor.  Charley is hilarious, even when, sometimes especially when, everything is going wrong.  Anyone who likes humorous adventure books that include some sex and gore will want to read the whole series.

Ghost Behind The Wall

Ghost Behind The Wall by Melvin Burgess, 164 pages

David gets into a lot of fights.  He’s angry about a lot of things in his life and when he realizes he can get into the ventilation system from his apartment and into other people’s apartments the same way, he thinks it’s a great opportunity to play tricks and cause trouble.  Unfortunately for him, he encounters a ghost while in the vents.  The ghost seems to be more angry than David and also seems determined to hurt an old man living in another apartment.  David is worried about the old man’s welfare and worried that he will be blamed for the trouble the ghost is causing.  This was an unusual ghost story but very interesting.  Kids who like scary stories would enjoy it.

The Hollow Boy

TheHollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud, 385 pages

“As a massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors baffles Scotland Yard and causes protests throughout London, Lockwood & Co. continue to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits. Anthony Lockwood is dashing, George insightful, and Lucy dynamic, while the skull in the jar utters sardonic advice from the sidelines. There is a new spirit of openness in the team now that Lockwood has shared some of his childhood secrets, and Lucy is feeling more and more as if her true home is at Portland Row. It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro. Meanwhile, there are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures. But ghosts seem to be the least of Lockwood & Co.'s concerns when assassins attack during a carnival in the center of the city. Can the team get past their personal issues to save the day on all fronts, or will bad feelings attract yet more trouble?” Stroud’s books are always fantastic.  This series is very good.  Teens who like science fiction, supernatural, and action adventure stories need to read it.

Thornhill

Thornhill by Pam Smy, 533 pages

“Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a girl unravels the mystery of the abandoned Thornhill Institute next door. 1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she's left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself. 2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl and solidify the link between them, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past. Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines--Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art--Pam Smy's Thornhill is a haunting exploration of human connection, filled with suspense.” This was creepy.  I wasn’t expecting the ending either.  This is a good book for teens who like graphic novels and horror.

Cast No Shadow

Cast No Shadow by Nick Tapalansky & Anissa Espinosa, 213 pages

Greg was born with no shadow.  Kids used to tease him about it until his best friend, Layla, started discouraging them.  Greg’s life isn’t bad, except for his mom dying and his dad’s new girlfriend moving in.  Oh, and Layla becoming more than friends with Jake, who used to be one of Greg’s biggest tormentors but, after an encounter with Layla, decided he wanted to be Greg’s new best friend.  But Greg’s life becomes crazy when he and Layla visit the haunted house in town and Greg actually meets the ghost, who is a beautiful teen named Eleanor.  Greg is the only one who sees her, and the two hit it off immediately.  Unfortunately, their encounter sets off a bizarre chain of events that they must figure out a way to stop before the entire town is destroyed.  This was a great graphic novel, very well done.  It was funny and a little scary.  I would highly recommend it to teens looking for non-manga graphic novels.

Johnny And The Dead

Johnny And The Dead by Terry Pratchett, 213 pages

“After twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell suddenly starts seeing and talking to ghosts, he and his friends become involved in a battle to save the local cemetery.” This is the second book in this trilogy, but each book stands alone very well.  I really liked the interaction between Johnny and the ghosts, and between Johnny and his friends.  The kids have very authentic voices and the ghosts were hilarious.  I would definitely recommend these books to kids who like science fiction, fantasy, and humor.

House of Spirits and Whispers:

House of Spirits and Whispers: The True Story of a Haunted House by Annie Wilder             Paperback Book: 192 pages                

Annie Wilder grew up in a family, many of which had psychic abilities, both on her mother’s side and on her father’s side of the family.    Her mother’s ancestors came from Ireland and were believers in the stories of fairy folk and often left little presents for the fairies as she was growing up.   Belief in haints (ghosts, ghostly spectres) was normal for them so Annie grew up knowing about ghosts, hearing lots of stories passed down through the generations along the supernatural line.    In 1994, Annie and her two teenage children moved into a century old Victorian style home.   It had always been her dream to live in such a wonderful old home but she never thought she could afford it until wham!  The house of her dreams was brought to her attention and while she knew it had to be out of her price range – it wasn’t.    Turns out it was a fixer upper, but it was glorious in Annie’s eyes when she toured the place with the realtor.   She thought it odd that they had to enter by the back door, but, hey, who cared?   It was divine in her eyes.    She couldn’t wait to sign the papers and move in.    There were pocket doors and secret rooms, doors that led to stairways that seemed to go nowhere though that could have been due to the remodeling done ages ago dividing the house into 3 separate apartments complete with kitchens in each separate apartment section of the house.    She and her son found a hidden dirt room in the basement along with other hidden rooms behind short, tiny doors.    She couldn’t imagine what the dirt room especially had been used for.   The last owner of the house lived in the back of the first floor and there was a distinctly different feeling to that part of the house.   It was darker, the air felt heavy in there, musky and it smelled of cigarettes and sweat.     The set-up of the house was strange feeling, too.   Sixteen doors opened into the main area.  After moving in, Annie began to hear voices whispering.   She later heard scratching in the walls.    She heard a woman scream and ran into her kids’ rooms to check on them but, it hadn’t awakened either of them.    She saw a woman at the foot of her bed,  her 3 cats started acting weird.   They would all stare at a wall for several minutes sometimes moving in tandem as if following something out of the room.    She came in a few times and saw one of her cats standing up on his hind feet in the middle of the room.   He would even walk on his two back feet until she called his name then he would seem like he was coming out of a trance and walk normally on all four feet.   That gives me goosebumps just the mental visual on that sight!   Even her son got to see the cat standing up walking around on two feet.   It didn’t scare him,  he just told his Mom he did see it, too.    Her son also found a few thousand dollars hid in a pipe in the dirt room one day when they were exploring the house.   After that they would go on adventures searching throughout the house looking for more money.   The house was located across the street from a funeral home so Annie thought maybe some of the ghosts that appeared over the years that hadn’t had a connection were maybe swinging by from over there.   One dark figure showed up one night scaring the crap out of Annie, he looked like a biker all in black , long greasy hair, his eyes shown sardonically.    Annie spent a lot of time being terrified but not enough to move.    She screamed and ran often when she first started seeing the former owner, Leon, materialize.    At first they didn’t get along but they came to terms when his antics started making her angry instead of scared.    She set terms with him, no reason why they couldn’t all live there together, but it was her house now.   However, she would like it very much if Leon would watch over them and keep the rowdy scary specters in line.   She met ghost buster Echo Bodine at a party once and they got to talking about her haunted house.   Echo came and did a clearing at the house but it didn’t last long till the lights, electrical devices in the house etc. started coming on and going off by themselves again.    She finally decided if you can’t beat them, join them and now with her kids grown up and moved out of the house, she and her 3 cats hold haunted tea parties for folks who want to pay to come have tea in a real haunted house in Minnesota.   If ya got it flaunt it, Girl!   Since she has so many ghosts and lots of bills at least that way her spectral boarders are pulling their weight.

The Marker

 The Marker by Diana Savastano   346 pages

Despite this book’s less-than-creative title, I was eager to read it. According to the back copy, it was about a marker from a Civil War soldier’s grave and his attempt to have his body moved to its proper burial site.

I was worried when I first opened it. The spacing between the paragraphs screamed self-published. And spacing between paragraphs also, usually, means poor writing.  I’m happy to report that most of the book is well done.

The book opens in 1863 at Port Gibson, Mississippi. Dr. Bradley Taylor, CSA, is killed and is buried in a makeshift grave. He’s exhumed in 1867 for a proper burial but is mistakenly misidentified. A marker denotes the place of his burial.

The story then shifts to present-day New York City. Reporter Jennifer Beasley is in desperate need of a vacation, but her editor, Sam, talks her into doing one more story before she gets two weeks of rest and relaxation. So Jen and a reporter head to Florida on assignment.

After their arrival in Fort Lauderdale, they have a free afternoon before headed to their interview. In an antique shop, Jen purchases a grave marker that had been taken from a Mississippi national cemetery in 1952. She doesn’t feel right about owning such an object. Before she decides what to do with it, she has an unusual encounter. When she holder the marker, she hears a voice, begging her to take him home.

After her assignment is complete, Jen starts to look into the marker’s history.  What follows is a highly readable story. I can’t give away any more than I already have. I truly enjoyed this book from the beginning until almost the end, about a fourth from the end, the story falls apart and seems rushed.  Therefore The Marker receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Ghost Attack

Ghost Attackby David Lubar, 111 pages

Alex and his cousin Sarah are visiting their grandparents.  Alex, who is allergy prone, gets a terrible rash.  He and Sarah realize that he is allergic to a ghost that is in their grandparents’ house.  They must figure out how to help the ghost so he can move on and Alex can stop itching.  This is the first book in the series Monster Itch and it is great for early chapter book readers.

Spirits Out of Time:

Spirits Out of Time: True Family Ghost Stories and Weird Paranormal Experiences by Annie Wilder          Paperback Book:  224 pages                      

Couldn’t put this book down.   It is so interesting.   If you are intrigued with the paranormal like I am you will really like this read.    Annie Wilder lives in a haunted house.   Over the years she has come to terms with the ghosts and their raucous behavior.   Many people in her family have experienced supernatural presences over the years and her Irish relatives talked about banshees, brownies, fairies and little people, death knocks,  which I’ve heard before – let me tell you just thinking about it makes the goosebumps rise and it certainly startled me at the time, and of course ghosts.   Annie talks about totem animals and visitations and symbols.    Lots of good tales of the haunted kind here.   If you like Echo Bodine’s writing you will certainly like Annie Wilder.    This was Annie’s second book so now I am searching for her first book, “House of Spirits and Whispers,” where she tells even more about the haunted happenings she has experienced in her home in Minnesota.   Annie even holds haunted teas at her home for the paranormal curious.    Many people in her family have psychic abilities of one sort or another.    Very interesting experiences described here.

One For Sorrow

One For Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn, 293 pages

Annie is new at school, shy, and unsure of how to make friends.  Elsie latches onto her, claiming that they will be best friends.  It’s very clear that the other girls don’t like Elsie, and Annie quickly realizes why.  Elsie is a tattletale and very angry.  She’s mean to Annie, pinching her and breaking her toys. Annie doesn’t want to be friends and quickly abandons her for the other girls’ friendships.  Then Elsie dies of the Spanish Influenza and her ghost comes back to torment Annie.  She is more determined than ever that they will be best friends and this time Annie has no idea how to get rid of her.  This is a chilling ghost story, perfect for older elementary kids.

I Am Alfonso Jones

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, 167 pages

This graphic novel tells the story of Alfonso Jones, shot to death by security while trying to buy a suit.  We get to know Alfonso before he died and after, as Alfonso’s spirit meets other people who died in similar ways to his.  Told to illustrate how black lives do not matter to the general population in so many ways, this is an excellent read for teens and for people who do not understand the Black Lives Matter movement.