I was less impressed with the regular teenage interactions. It really is pretty scary the supernatural sections are well done. And there is a lot of tension in this story. Is he part of the deaths? Can he be trusted? There is almost as much tension around the male characters as there is around the supernatural ones. But he seems to know somethings about Steele House, and Hendricks finds herself strangely drawn to him. Not only does Hendricks get immediately accepted by the Cool Kids, but the football star young man immediately likes her- maybe too much? Then there is the neighbor boy, Eddie, a dark haired Goth who the Cool Kids all ridicule and scorn because he is poor- I frankly found this to be damn near as horrifying as the supernatural parts. There is a lot of drinking, and it seems to be okay with all the parents. They eat together, get together after school, and drink together. She also lucks out at school: she is immediately invited into the group of Cool Kids. A sitter watches the baby during the day, but when Hendricks gets home, it’s her and the kid, which she barely interacts with. Hendricks is basically living in the house alone with her baby brother- her parents are still spending most of the time in the city, and even when they are at Steele House they barely interact. The run down house they choose to redo is the Steele House, where some horrible deaths occurred years before- deaths that were not exactly on the disclosure list at sale. Teen-aged Hendricks Becker-O’Malley and her family move to a small town so that Hendricks can start over after a traumatic event with her ex-boyfriend.

With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts.

And, then, one night, things take a violent turn. Voices whisper in her ear as she lays in bed. But Hendricks isn't sure if it's the demons of her past haunting her. Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House-the fixer upper her parents are so excited about-is notorious in town. Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past. That's what Hendricks Becker-O'Malley's parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York.

ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S 'BIGGEST AND BEST YA BOOKS OF THE SUMMER'įrom Danielle Vega, YA's answer to Stephen King, comes a new paranormal novel about dark family secrets, deep-seated vengeance, and the horrifying truth that evil often lurks in the unlikeliest of places.Ĭlean slate.

Danielle vega the haunted