REVIEW: The Screaming Staircase - Jonathan Stroud

GENRE: Childrens 9-12
PAGES: 480
PUBLISHER: Corgi
FORMAT: PB
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in...For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions. Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive. Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again...

REVIEW

Lately, through my love of Skulduggary Pleasant, I have been delving further and further in to adventure stories for children younger than the usual teen titles I read.

When Lockwood and Lucy discover the corpse of a young socialite in a house suffering from the Problem they vow to uncover her killer. Following the clues through a series of dangerous haunted houses and objects - not to mention the dangerous people - Lockwood and Lucy must try to find out the truth no matter what it costs them.

The Screaming Staircase ticks so many boxes for me. Ghosts. Check. Awesome female character I can relate to. Check. Gothic and ghoulish settings. Check. Oh, and the fact that this book is for a younger audience than Teen means I don't have to worry that the kick-ass adventure scenes are going to end in romance. Because boys are like, ew.

Lockwood and Co. is are based in an alternative England, where the 'problem' of hauntings has risen to an unstoppable level. Children, like our narrator Lucy, are more sensitive to seeing ghosts, and are recruited by agencies like Lockwood and Co. as hunting operatives. The way Stroud presents London is dark, with an almost Victorian feel. Part Ghostbusters, part Dickens and part Sherlock Holmes, The Screaming Staircase is full of the twists, turns and jumpy moments that I love, and  the easy humorous prose kept my attention well to the end.

Don't be fooled by it's 9-12 listing; it's the perfect crossover book. Lucy is about 15 and I think the writing is awesome. So, next time you walk past our 9-12 section, stop and take a look - there are many gems like this to find.

Recommended Reading

Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy

Department 19 - Will Hill

- Bex.

GUEST REVIEW: The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me - Laura Tait & Jimmy Rice

GENRE: Contemporary/ Romance
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: Corgi
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY

Everyone remembers their first love. Holly certainly remembers Alex. But she decided ten years ago that love wasn't about mix tapes and seizing the moment - though she's not exactly sure it's about secret dates with your boss, either. But what if the feelings never really went away? Alex wants to make every moment of his new job count. It's a fresh start in a big city, and he's almost certain that moving to London has nothing to do with Holly. Almost. How do you know if it was meant to be ...or never meant to happen at all?

REVIEW

I recently got a copy of The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice and I knew that this book will be amazing (I got a feeling). The only book that I have read that two authors writing one book is Will Grayson, Will Grayson (by David Levithan and John Green) so the format is similar to that.

This book is about Alex and Holly who had a teenage friendship but they lose contact with each other and do not rekindle their relationship until they are nearly thirty. Holly doesn’t really know what love is. She doesn’t think that it is about giving each other mix tapes to remind them of you or living in the now and forgetting about the future. She doesn’t think having a secret relationship with her boss is what love is really about. Alex, however knew what love is. He has always loved Holly, however when they started to drift apart and stopped talking to each other, he had doubts about whether he actually did love Holly in the first place. However, when he moves to London (where Holly lives) he thinks that he is moving for himself, not for Holly but he has his own doubts about this theory.

Main Characters:

Alex: Alex is a babe. Honestly. His character is very interesting because he has tried to convince himself that he doesn’t like Holly anymore but really his feelings for her grow stronger as the book continues. What I also love about his character is that the humour is lacking but for me that makes Alex hilarious. He never forgot about Holly (which is really sweet), she was always that friend that got away and never came back.

Holly: Holly is such an amazing character. She is ambitious, hard-working and determined to be successful in life, which is what we all strive to be, she is just a regular person (with a irregular relationship with her boss). Due to her personality, she wants her boss to announce that they are a couple but he doesn’t, which really annoys her. I love her character because regardless of what happens, she sticks to what she believes in.

I love this book because it jumps from present day, back to the past and then back to the present so you get to see how the characters have developed without having to read masses of paper. This book is also very funny and it is very enjoyable. THE ENDING WAS AMAZING.

This book is such a good read, when you are feeling down, it will honestly warm your heart.

- Ambi.