What the Dead Want

April 1, 2016
Sixteen-year-old Gretchen, whose mother, a renowned specialist in spiritualist photography, has been missing for years, inherits a derelict mansion in upstate New York. The white girl joins her great-aunt, Esther, who has been living alone there. She tells Gretchen that she will be leaving and that Gretchen must finish the work that she and her mother had started. Aunt Esther is a famous war photographer, but now she photographs what she believes to be ghosts trapped on the property. It will be Gretchen's job to discover why and free their souls. Once she agrees, Gretchen finds herself in a whirlwind of catastrophe. The ghosts originate from an atrocity committed in 1864 by the Ku Klux Klan, who deliberately burned a church full of African-American worshipers, including two little girls who have become extremely nasty and active spirits. To solve the mystery, Gretchen unites with banjo-playing black neighbor Hawk, who can also see the ghosts, and his sister, Hope. After a slow and exposition-heavy start, Olson provides chills and thrills as she concocts some truly original hauntings inside the house. Although the author depicts the Ku Klux Klan operating in the North during the Civil War, before its actual founding in the South, its anachronistic presence in the story helps to elevate the tension. A well-meaning though unsubtle ghost story. (Horror. 12-18)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Gretchen is a high school student looking forward to a summer in New York City when she receives a letter from her estranged great-aunt Esther. She discovers that she has inherited her family's mansion. Gretchen's mother mysteriously disappeared a few years earlier, and the teen hopes to find some answers by traveling to the Axton mansion. Gretchen is unexpectedly left alone in the house and begins to encounter ghostly visions. This tale is mostly a ghost story but also has aspects of historical fiction, as Gretchen uncovers the truth about her ancestors. She finds stacks of pictures and letters that help her piece together that her family were abolitionists who aided slaves escaping their masters. The narrative becomes a bit of a mystery as Gretchen and her new neighbors, Hawk and Hope, try to get to the bottom of what happened on the site of the mansion and why there are sinister, creepy characters in the house. The haunting truth is exposed after two hectic days, which strains credulity. Readers will be wondering why Gretchen's mother and aunt couldn't figure it out in 40 years. Fans of Ransom Riggs's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will enjoy this horror tale. Interior art often opens each chapter and is peppered throughout, adding to the haunting effect. VERDICT A title recommended for any collection in need of a unique horror story that has more than just ghosts.-Morgan O'Reilly, Riverdale Country School, NY

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Grades 7-10 Gretchen Axton, 16, lost her mother years ago, literally: Mona Axton, who made a career out of spirit photography, vanished mysteriously. Gretchen inherited her skill with a camera, and now it seems she is next in line for the family mansion. Curious, Gretchen leaves her native Manhattan to travel to the house in upstate New York, where she meets her odd great-aunt Esther and discovers that the mansion and the town are the site of a dark family secret from the Civil War eraa secret that's brought startlingly into the present when Gretchen encounters actual ghosts of the past. As a ghost story, this sometimes misses the markthe ghosts are rarely chilling or evocativebut Olson, as she did in her debut (Twisted Fate, 2015), uses her journalism background to great effect. Letters, newspaper clippings, and vintage photographs from Gretchen's ancestors' time provide added detail as Gretchen tries to solve both the racially charged mysteries of the past and the secret behind her mother's disappearance in this atmospheric exploration of family sins.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)