I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.

When the author contacted me on Twitter after I retweeted her tweet about her book I just couldn’t say no. I just love spooky books and while I am not 100% on the fence about verse I was curious about a spooky book featuring verse. Mostly verse is used for non-spooky books, more serious books. So I was eager to see how it worked out!

Well, the start was a bit slow for me, at times I had to reread because sometimes things just hopped from one to another and I felt like I missed things, plus I was still getting into the verses and all the fun stuff the author did with that, but after 50 pages it started to kick off for me and I was really invested. Before I knew it I read the whole book. Yep. I just couldn’t stop reading. I have to say it wasn’t as scary as I had thought it would be but it was still a very good book with some very spooky moments. More on that later!

First up, meet our MC, hello to Jayce! Jayce and his family are staying at Lake Lucy for a fun summer time, but quite soon we see that something spooky is happening in the abandoned house next to their home. Plus, the strange dreams that Jayce is having and that freak him out. Eventually he, with the help of his twin sister who is just a bit braver and the support of a new friend named Blas, posts a letter in the mailbox of the abandoned home to ask the ghost some serious questions (including the ghost’s name, but also why the heck is there a rowboat in the room, yes a rowboat). This let me to think hard on how US mailboxes work again and as for this review I looked it up. Interesting idea that whole flag, and wow that you can even have the postman pick up mail for you? But back to the book! Our MC is exchanging some letters with the mysterious ghost. Though I quickly had a feel there was more to it than just ghostly business, the way the letters were written just seemed off to me. And that sparked an interest in me. Because is it or isn’t it a ghost? And if it isn’t, who is replying and who is working on that rowboat in the house next door? I was very curious and I love the conclusion to that. I won’t tell you. You will have to read it! But you are in for a ride!

There are also some spooky moments. Like the dreams which were scary, but later on things get really creepy and a tad scary and I loved every moment of it. Think spooky mists. Think something is not happy with certain things happening. Especially the later part of the book just went up in speed.

Oh, and I liked both the twin sister, Evie and Jayce’s new friend: Blas. They were great characters and brought something extra to the story. Evie with her bravery and I loved how she was willing to help out her brother BUT only if he did something back for her, and those things back were just very wholesome. Like doing an activity together. And Blas, the new friend, was just such a fun character, I love how he believed Jayce. I was a bit worried when Jayce told him about the ghost stuff, but Blas was fully into it and that was so fun.

I loved finding out more about what was happening and the history of the lake. About the families there. And see how all the puzzle pieces just clicked together.

Oh, and I love how the author did the verse. Some books just keep the verse one way, but this author added thoughts, little explanations in special verse, bold and cursive were added, there were words or letters to be found that formed a sentence or a word. It was a lot of fun! As I said, I had to get into it for a bit, but after a while I just loved it.

All in all, if you want a fun spooky summer read told in verse be sure to check out this book. It is perfect for this upcoming summer months. And I will be looking forward to what is next for this author!