Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu

Item: Not Quite a Ghost
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted January 8, 2024 by karenbaron in Children's, Review / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Not Quite a Ghost

by Anne Ursu

Published by HarperCollins Children's Books on January 16, 2024
Setting: Minnesota
Genres: Middle Grade Horror
Pages: 288
Format: Audible Audiobook, Audio CD, Hardcover, Kindle
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Bookhype
BookBub
Storygraph
Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook

From the award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy comes an unforgettable and deeply personal story of the ghosts that surround us—and the ones we carry inside.

The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn’t fit among them. For Violet Hart—whose family is about to move into the house on Katydid Street—very little felt like it fit anymore. Like their old home, suddenly too small since her mother remarried and the new baby arrived. Or Violet’s group of friends, which, since they started middle school, isn’t enough for Violet’s best friend, Paige. Everything seemed to be changing at once. But sometimes, Violet tells herself, change is okay.

That is, until Violet sees her new room. The attic bedroom in their new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. And then, after moving in, Violet falls ill—and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she’s really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the shadows moving in the corners, wrapping themselves around her at night.

And soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all.

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu takes a family that moved to a new house to a new kind of trouble.

Is change always a good thing?

Violet Hart

For Violet Hart and her blended family, the change started from becoming a blended family. Then, after three years, Violet and her family move from the home she has known her whole life into a new house with enough room for their family to live peacefully. Of course, while Violet was moving, she entered middle school, and her best friend Paige wanted to grow their small group of three into a group of five girls. Violet has taken everything in strides and is trying to be a good person through all this change until she gets sick. I felt so bad for Violet as I know how it feels to move while also starting at a new school, and it sucks. Except I wasn’t a middle child and got stuck in a haunted attic room.

I hope that things get better for Violet.

The House

The house on Katydid Street is a character in itself, and I loved how Ms. Ursu did that very subtly throughout. Ms. Ursu was able to do that by saying things like houses can lie to the people looking at them or they can tell their truth. For the house of Katydid Street for Violet’s family, the rest of the house lied, but the attic room told its truth. Don’t Enter! Not Safe! Except poor Violet didn’t listen until it was too late. I actually liked thinking of the character as a house and how, just like with Violet, it had to have courage one day.

The Ghost

Much like Violet, the house on Katydid Street had an infection in the attic room—the ghost who moved in without the house accepting it and being able to kick it out. Ghost Girl is a great antagonist, as I didn’t expect her to be quite how she was described or ended up being. Ms. Ursu did a fantastic job with that whole part of the story.

Five Stars

I am giving five stars to Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu, and I’m recommending it to everyone who loves a good horror story. Ms. Ursu has done a fantastic job writing this story, which has the perfect vibe for a horror story. I also like the message that it has attached to it as well.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

Baroness’ Book Trove is an Amazon, Books A Million, and Barnes and Noble affiliate, meaning that if you click on a link that takes you to one of those retailers and purchase something, this blog gets a tiny percentage back. Mainly, this helps with the cost of the website and a few giveaways.

About Anne Ursu

Anne Ursu is the author of acclaimed novels The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, The Lost Girl, Breadcrumbs, and The Real Boy, among others. Her work has been selected as a National Book Award nominee, a Kirkus Prize finalist, and as a best book of the year by Parents Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com, and School Library Journal. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and an unruly herd of cats. Her next book, Not Quite a Ghost, will be out in 2024.