Stage Fright by Wendy Parris (review)

Newly teenaged Avery is stoked to visit her friends back home after moving to Philadelphia last year, but the visit turns sour as she soon realizes that her friendship of four has taken a new shape. Paige is hanging out with their sworn enemy and definitely keeping some secrets, and Jaylen and Tyler seem weirdly tense with one another and won’t tell Avery why. Worried that her friends are growing apart—and worse, outgrowing her—Avery suggests something way outside of her comfort zone: to perform a seance at a theater where a young girl had fallen to her death. Feigning confidence to save face amongst her only friends, Avery ignores literal warning signs urging them to turn back but soon realizes they are trapped inside the not-quite-abandoned theater along with a ghastly skull and ghost combo who “wants to play.” Parris breezes through a brief setup and hastens to the creepy goods in this middle grade horror that surely earns its shelf space near the Goosebumps series and the like. Beyond its well-executed tropes, however, this selection also brings some sophistication, dabbling in more mature literary nods to Shakespeare, as Parris cleverly links an ominous skull and a ghost to Avery’s internal tug-of-war, as she questions whether taking chances in life is worth the uncertainty when ultimately everyone’s destiny is . . . grave. Ultimately, our heroine comes to terms with her flaws and discovers that there’s more to her than an “Anxious Avery” rep. Going toe-to-toe with a vengeful spirit may not be the quickest path to personal growth, but it certainly works in this case.