4 stars
Delightfully spooky and surprisingly heartwarming. I never read Mary Downing Hahn’s novels growing up, but I just might after finishing this graphic novel adaptation. An interesting way to revive an older tale and make it more appealing to a modern audience.
A new house, a blended family, and sinister secrets. This story had me hooked. The ghost elements were fascinating. A nice blend of creepy and intriguing. There’s a bit of a mystery element worked into the spooky bits that makes the reader want to read more.
For a graphic novel, it’s fairly wordy with a good chunk of the dialogue pulled from the original book. That means some of the speech is pretty dated. However, I liked the connection to its roots instead of modernizing the dialogue. All in all, I think it worked just fine.
To be honest, the parents are pretty awful though, especially Dave. It made for a very frustrating reading experience at times. However, by the end when all the pieces fit into place, the story was so satisfying.
The book deals with some heavy topics including grief, guilt, death of a parent, and the fear of being alone and unloved. It has some great messages worked in, which was a nice surprise.
Definitely want to go read the original now and explore more of Mary Downing Hahn’s spooky tales. What a great read.