I once again fooled myself into thinking that a cute, spooky, middle grade novel wouldn’t be as scary as reading adult horror😱 While the thrills and chills in this book aren’t totally the same as YA or adult horror, it’s still frightening, especially considering its intended audience is for kids ages 8–12.

In Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko we follow Zee Puckett, a girl who absolutely loves ghost stories. She’s always writing new ones and sharing them with her best friend, Elijah. Scary stories are all fun and games for them, until a storm sweeps through their hometown, teachers go missing, and their new principle seems a bit odd. There’s something not quite right with him; he’s starting to have a strange effect on people, and it’s up to Zee to figure out what exactly is going on and put an end to it.

This book has strong friendships, paranormal beings, supernatural gifts and abilities, ghosts, cute dogs, scary hounds, cemeteries, trees full of eyes, grief, and lessons on how powerful and meaningful our words can be. Yes, it’s eerie, but it also has important themes woven in as well.

I absolutely loved this book, and think many young readers would as well. I know I would have as a kid, too.

I was also lucky enough to interview the author about this book and learn about her inspiration for it, and get some more insight into the characters and themes. Click the link in my bio to read more about it!

Thank you so much to Grace from Book Sparks for sending me an ARC and giving me the opportunity to read and review, and interview the author. And a huge thank you to Ally for taking the time to answer my questions! The full Q&A will be up shortly, so check back soon.

Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko came out on August 10, 2021 and is truly the perfect story to read this spooky season. You can buy it wherever books are sold👻