Book Review by Aarene Storms: The Screaming Staircase

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood and Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud

Who ya gonna call when the Ghostbusters are too old to see the ghosts, ghasts, haunts, fogs and malevolent spirits walking the streets ... and everywhere else?

Lockwood and Co. is ready to help. 

In this alternative-world adventure, people are plagued by a horrible epidemic of dead stuff coming back to haunt --and harm -- the living. Adults can't see ghosts, although they can be harmed by them. Only a few children and teens with Talent are able to find and banish the haunting dead. But the job isn't easy. And frequently, the task is deadly.

Lucy Carlyle is an agent who, with her colleagues George and Lockwood, faces down dangerous specters. But now she's got a special ghost all her own: Annie Ward's spirit wants revenge, and she wants Lucy to help her.

Rating:

Fast paced, spooky adventure with plenty of smart banter in between shrieks of terror. No sex, no cussing.  Plenty of blood and dead bodies. A romance between Lucy and Lockwood may happen in later volumes, but so far there are only words between them.

Highly recommended for readers ages 12 to adult.

The events may not have happened; still, the story is true.  --R. Silvern

Aarene Storms, youth services librarian

Richmond Beach and Lake Forest Park Libraries, KCLS