“Mom, the house is creepy” (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, Chapter 1, Sentence 1).
“Something freaky’s going on with Sunshine’s new house . . . there’s the chill that wraps itself around her bones, the giggling she can hear in the dead of night, and then the strange shadows that lurk in her photographs. But the more weird stuff that happens, the less her mom believes her. Sunshine’s always had a quirky affiliation with the past, but this time, history is getting much too close for comfort . . .
If there is something, or someone, haunting her house, what do they want? And what will they do if Sunshine can’t help them?
As things become more frightening and dangerous, and the giggles she hears turn to sobs and screams, Sunshine has no choice but to accept what she is, face the test before her and save her mother from a fate worse than death.” (Goodreads synopsis)
Krystal’s Review:
This is book one in the series and I will definitely be reading the rest of them. Although this deals with ghosts, I can’t help making comparisons to the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A teen girl gets introduced to the paranormal, finds out she is supposed to fight the paranormal creatures and protect humans, and decides she really wants nothing to do with it and she’s rather happy being a normal teenager. Too bad for Sunshine, she has no choice because to do nothing means her mother dies. Also, there is a “protector” character that does all the research and helps her (a teenaged Giles).
This book really does have some frightening scenes. There’s a scene where her stuffed owl, Dr. Hoo, is flying around the ceiling of her bedroom during a thunder storm: a flying, possessed, stuffed owl—no thank you. I would be right there with her dog Oscar, cowering under the bed. Even though Sunshine proclaims that she’s not strong enough to handle ghosts, this scene convinced me otherwise. Instead of cowering under the bed with me and the dog, she was reaching for her phone for evidence.
We are Skyping with this author on Thursday, June 1st! If you don’t think that you can read the 296 page book BEFORE Thursday…that’s okay, check out her YouTube channel by searching for “The Haunting of Sunshine Girl”.
Read-a-likes include: Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano; The House by Christina Lauren; and The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle.
Let me know whether you like this book!
Krystal
