Ghostlight by Sonia Gensler (review)

After being scorned by her older brother, twelve-year-old Avery is left to her own devices as she spends the summer with her loving but strict grandmother. When a family rents a house on Avery’s grandmother’s farm, Avery finds a kindred spirit in new neighbor Julian, a boy whose passion for amateur filmmaking rivals Avery’s love of storytelling. Julian is looking to film a ghost story and offers to make Avery one of its stars; she’s initially thrilled, but her enthusiasm is dampened when Julian insists that the movie be made at Hilliard House, a dilapidated mansion rumored to be haunted and strictly forbidden to Avery by her grandmother. Avery eventually caves to Julian’s pressure, and one night they venture out to the old house to discover that the rumors are all too true. The story is deliciously spine tingling, with the scenes in the house paying homage to some of the great ghost movies Julian expounds upon. Mysteriously slamming doors, shaking chandeliers, and shadowy figures in mirrors all work to amp up the chill factor, and the ghost remains tantalizingly unseen until near the end. The backstories of Avery’s and Julian’s family dramas are a bit underdeveloped, but they eventually make an effective connection to the true story behind the house and elaborate on the book’s message that there is power in knowing your family’s history. This would make a nice springboard for researching local lore and ghost stories, or it can simply be read on a stormy night when the shadows start playing tricks and the wind begins to howl.