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Title: The Haunting by Joan Lowery Nixon ISBN: 0-440-22008-4 Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (37 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Could have been spookier
Comment: Joan Lowry Nixon crafts a competent ghost story with a likeable heroine, but the plot could use a little less mystery and a little more ghostly interference. But fans of haunted houses and mysterious family secrets will enjoy this a great deal.
Lia is an unspectacular member of a family known for its impressive women. When her great-grandmother dies, she tells Lia that their ancestral house, Graymoss, must be preserved -- even though it is thought to be hideously evil. However, Lia's blindly optimistic parents have an obsessive dream of adopting a dozen "unadoptable" children, and are determined to turn Graymoss into a home for those kids. Lia is less than thrilled about the idea, both because of the disruption of her life and because of the ghosts.
Before leaving, Lia purchases a bag of voodoo gris-gris that will repel ghosts. And soon she finds that she needs it -- strange gusts of wind, a crashing window, a falling book, and a strange indentation in her bed. Her parents refuse to believe that there is anything strange about the house, but Lia can feel a malevolent presence. Armed with gris-gris, a cryptic diary and a collection of Poe's stories, she must try to banish the evil forces from Graymoss.
Nixon crafts a good story with plenty of sprinkled clues, family conflicts, and a big creaky house with no bathrooms. Her dialogue is pleasantly solid and believable, without fake witticisms or overly complex monologues. It's easy to imagine real people saying these words. Her portrayals of the family and their differing views on Graymoss were exceptionally done. And the mystery clues sprinkled in the Poe book and the old diary from a Civil War Southern belle were also clever and pulled the various threads of the story together.
Unfortunately, this book is not particularly scary. The ghostly interludes are few and far between, and even when they do surface, they are not particularly detailed or frightening -- Nixon seems to be stuck on plaster faces that move and gusts of wind, because the "boo!" effects never progress beyond that. She also inserts a lukewarm love interest and a subplot about the unadoptable kids. While these are good in themselves, they seem rather pointless as nothing is really done with them.
Lia is a likeable heroine; she's really accomplished nothing noteworthy, but doesn't allow that fact to get her down. She also shows extraordinary patience with her dewy-eyed parents, who for all their talk about "reality" seem to have very little grasp on it. Their reckless plans to adopt "unadoptable" kids (who are often unadoptable for very good reasons) will have many readers rolling their eyes. Her grandmother exhibits a different kind of irritating stubbornness, but one that readers will warm to much more readily.
Despite the drawbacks, this is a pretty solid historical mystery -- but the realm of the juvenile horror story is still John Bellairs's. If you like family secrets and a few "boo!" moments, this might be your speed.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great thriller!!!
Comment: This book is about a girl, Lia Starling. When her great-grandmother dies her mother inheirits this old plantation called, Graymaoss. This plantation survived the Civil War and is waiting for some one. When Lia's parents want to move into the house and fill it with "unadoptabe" kids Lia has to figure out who the house is waiting for using the original owner, Charolette Blevins, diary and an old copy of Favorite Tales of Edgar Allen Poe. Can she solve this mystery? You'll have to read it to find out. This book sent chills down my spine and its a great book to read over and over again. The auther describes everything so well that it feels like you're excperiencing the terror of Graymoss!
Rating: 4
Summary: Mysterious House
Comment: I enjoyed reading the book, "The Haunting" by Joan Lowery Nixon. In "The Haunting" Lia is the main character who's 15 and an only child. In the book her great grandmother dies and in her will she leaves this house for Lia's mother, with Charolette's diary. The house is supposedly haunted and no one's lived in it for the past hundred years. The diary is full of stories from when Charlotte lived there. Lia's parents have big plans for when they move into the house. They are going to adopt a dozen kids and live in Graysmoss. Lia doesn't like the idea of having a dozen kids running around. Lia and her parents go and visit Graymoss, her parents love the house but they have to have it inspected before they move in. Right before they were leaving Lia's mother saw an indention in the bed that wasn't there before. Read to discover what really happends. I thought it was a great book, it was suspensful and exciting to read.
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Title: Whispers from the Dead (Laurel Leaf Books) by Joan Lowery Nixon ISBN: 0440208092 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Who Are You? by JOAN LOWERY NIXON ISBN: 0440227577 Publisher: Laurel Leaf Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: The Weekend Was Murder (Dell Natural Medicine Library) by Joan Lowery Nixon ISBN: 0440219019 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Murdered, My Sweet by Joan Lowery Nixon ISBN: 044022005X Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books Pub. Date: 10 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The Ghosts of Now by Joan Lowery Nixon ISBN: 0440931150 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 01 May, 1986 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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