20499923Title: A Curious Tale of the In-Between

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Publication Date: September 2015

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction/Ghost Story

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book One

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Review:

Pram can see ghosts, much to the alarm of her two aunts who raise her. Her best friend Felix is a ghost. But one day, a living boy Clarence comes into view. Bright and colorful and vibrant. And Pram and Clarence start an adventure together that will be full of danger and ghosts…

I enjoy DeStefano’s writing. Her imagination is vivid and her solid writing and there’s always that very thick edge of darkness that hovers under the surface. So I was intrigued to read her new middle grade book. Especially since it’s about ghosts. I’m so glad I wasn’t disappointed.

Pram is young but clever and smart. She sees the world around her and knows she is different. Especially because her best friend is a ghost. But that doesn’t stop her from being best friends with Felix, or recognizing how strange the world is around her. I love Felix and Clarence as supporting characters. They each bring something different to the story as one is a ghost. I love how their friendships are written, each being warm and nurturing and sweet.

The story is haunting with a lot of death (as you can imagine, we are dealing with ghosts here) and strange other world experiences. I love the flow of the story, which immediately grabs the reader and pulls them through this adventure which has a certain dreamlike quality.

I highly recommend this middle grade book. I don’t read a lot of middle grade, but this one had my undivided attention from page one.

In fact, I was reading it in my car, parked outside of a friend’s house and was therefore ten minutes late to get to the party.

Because I had to finish.

Middle grade readers will love this book of haunting and sadness and mystery. And their parents might want to pick it up too!

Rating 8 Cookie Worthy