by Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Middle grade paranormal horror
My Rating: ★★★
Description:
Ever since the Problem began, and the dead started haunting the hallways and shadowed corners of England, teams of ghost hunting agencies have cropped up across the country, all with one purpose: combat the Visitors. Most of these teams have adult supervisors to secure their safety. Not Lockwood and Co.
Lucy Carlyle is used to danger. But when a ghost hunting assignment goes badly wrong and a new contract springs up to investigate one of the most haunted houses in Britain, she and her teammates will be tested to the limit. They have one night to earn their fortune. But first they have to survive it.
Overall Thoughts, aka, It Should Have Been Victorian
I bought this book mainly because it looked like it might be similar to Doctor Who (and I'm a hardcore Whovian, so that's a big plus in my books), and partly because I thought it was a book about Victorian ghost hunters. Well, I got part of it right. It was about ghost hunters for sure, but Victorian ghost hunters? No. I feel betrayed, because that cover screams "Victorian era" at me, okay? But hey, I ended up liking it anyway, so I guess that's a plus.
*note* I will probably be talking about the Victorians a lot in this post, and I want to apologize in advance. I know it's a really small thing to get so worked up over, but I wanted a story about Victorian ghost hunters so bad, so forgive my rantiness. *end of note*
The Characters
The characterization was kind of all over the place. Lockwood is hands down the best character. He acts like he should belong in the Victorian age a lot of the time, so whenever he used a modern word I had to do a double take and remember the time period it's set in. Lucy, the narrator, is okay, but she didn't really stand out to me as being awesome. But she didn't annoy me either, which is something I can't say about the last member of the trio. Let's talk about George for a minute, because he was really annoying! He's the stereotypical middle grade comic relief character, and it rubbed me the wrong way. I kept waiting for the author to turn that stereotype on its head, but by the halfway point I'd given up all hope. I can only wish that the sequels have some better character development for him, but since this is a middle grade series (which usually means fairly static characters) my hopes aren't too high.
Plot/Pacing
As for the plot... it was rather lackluster. The beginning set up something super cool and intriguing, but the introduction of a second plotline halfway through the book messed everything up. The author did try to tie the two plots together at the end, but it ended up not working very well (in my opinion.) I was also disappointed by the way the mystery element was resolved, but I wasn't in it for the mystery, so it didn't bother me as much as lackluster mysteries have done to me in the past. (Looking at you, The Lost Girl of Astor Street.)
Worldbuilding
I think my favorite part of the book was the ghosts. Which were awesomely creepy and... dare I say... fun? That sounds wrong, but hopefully some of you understand what I'm trying to say. There's all these different types of ghosts, with different levels of danger and creepiness. Some look like typical ghosts, some (apparently) like corpses, and some like shadows or blood (which is both "ew!" and "cool!" at the same time.) I also liked how the book explained why adults are sending kids into mortal danger to hunt ghosts. Only children and teens can actually sense ghosts clearly enough to be of any use fighting them. And speaking of fighting them, the kids use rapiers! Honest to goodness rapiers. How does that not scream "Victorian" at you?
However, despite my complaints, The Screaming Staircase was a fun, enjoyable read. Not a new favorite, but I'll definitely be looking at reading the sequels in the future. And would someone please write me a book about Victorian ghost hunters?
Content
Recommended for ages 12 and up.
This is advanced middle grade/early YA, so there's not much in the way of objectionable content. No swearing as I can recall. A few instances of rude humor, which irked me (can't stand it whatsoever.)
A character feels the emotions of a dead woman through a piece of jewelry, through which she gets the impression of bliss and pain. There are no real details, but there's an implication of the woman's relationship with a man.
Some of the ghosts could be disturbing. Scenes of peril. Several descriptions of dead bodies. There's a few descriptions of a severed hand and a skull in a jar. If a person is touched by a ghost, they turn blue and can die without proper treatment. Descriptions of blood. A few horror legends, including one about a man who collected the heads of the people he killed for fun. Mentions of suicide in the context of a story one character tells Lucy and the others.
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