August 6, 2024 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Eva Mauberry live in Tennessee, but her parents have to go to Mississippi to deal with her grandmother's estate. Her older sister Egypt is in college, but her parents want her to spend a semester in Blythe Academy, a private school that her father attended, so that they can focus on wrapping up the grandmother's concerns. Eva's Aunt Nooncie has just taken a job teaching at the school, so will be there to help as well. Eva does make friends quickly, including her roommate Vee, who is Dominican, and Ami, who is Black and Thai as well as nonbinary. She also talks to a girl named Mac, who seems to disappear quickly on some occasions. The school has a long history of being haunted, mainly because it was built on land that was taken from a Black community by the Friends of Lafayette Falls Lake group, who then built the school. Eva has a meltdown in the office after a ghostly woman grabs her wrist; her father has to be called to calm her down. He believes her a bit about the ghost, but not that it hurt her. Eva is autistic, but was hoping to keep this a secret longer, although her new friends are understanding. As Eva tries to figure out why the school is haunted, she finds other information about a classroom that collapsed fifty years ago, killing a teacher. Vee and Ami believe her, and try to help her with her research. There is one student, Theo, who is occasionally mean to Eva, but also gives her ear buds that her autistic brother finds useful. There is a Centennial Celebration being planned for the school, and since the previous catastrophe happened during the last big celebration, the students want to figure things out quickly. Mac seems helpful, but when a group of girls try a Bloody Mary type chant in the bathroom, things get strange. What part did Mac have in the history of the school, and can Eva and her friends figure out why the school is haunted?
Strengths: This would have been referred to as a book written by an #OwnVoices author; davis is autistic. It's good to see this represenation. The history of the school is filled with lots of problems, and these are described well but don't slow the ghost portion of the stort down. It's good to see that Eva has people who support her. The teachers are a little suspicious, which is always fun, but are of course working for the good of the school. There is a seance with a ouija board, which young readers always enjoy.
Weaknesses: Eva finds a lot of comfort in the Karen Cooper musical group; this seems to be an actual musical group. Not really a weakness; I just wasn't sure.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like their scary ghost stories set in placed that were sites of historic cultural oppression, like the Colored Orphangage Asylum in Cummings' Trace or the lake in India Hill Brown's The Girl in the Lake.
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