Not Quite a Ghost
by Anne Ursu (Author)
From the award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy comes an unforgettable and deeply personal story of the ghosts that surround us--and the ones we carry inside.
The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn't fit among them. For Violet Hart--whose family is about to move into the house on Katydid Street--very little felt like it fit anymore. Like their old home, suddenly too small since her mother remarried and the new baby arrived. Or Violet's group of friends, which, since they started middle school, isn't enough for Violet's best friend, Paige. Everything seemed to be changing at once. But sometimes, Violet tells herself, change is okay.
That is, until Violet sees her new room. The attic bedroom in their new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. And then, after moving in, Violet falls ill--and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she's really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the shadows moving in the corners, wrapping themselves around her at night. And soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all.
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Publishers Weekly
Sandwiched between moody older sister Mia and three-year-old half brother Owen, Minneapolis sixth grader and middle child Violet Hart feels as if she's the one who's supposed to "make things easy" on her mother and stepfather, resulting in her reluctantly agreeing to take the disconcerting, wallpapered attic bedroom in the family's new home. At school, Violet's besties Paige and Ally are determined to expand their friend group now that they're in middle school, but a sleepover with potential new recruits goes disastrously awry, leading to a mysterious sickness that Violet can't shake. While enduring unrelenting exhaustion, the 11-year-old struggles to balance schoolwork and shifting friendship dynamics, as well as nightmares brought on by her bedroom's disturbingly illogical wallpaper. Upon Violet discovering a haven in the school library with Will, a bespectacled boy researching ghosts, she wonders if there's something sinister in her home. Inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," as addressed in an author's note, Ursu (The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy) perceptively incorporates middle school drama into a page-turning tale about the difficulties of managing an invisible illness and any accompanying skepticism from friends and healthcare providers. Violet is white; there is racial diversity among the supporting cast. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tina Dubois, CAA. (Jan.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
"Anne Ursu has done it again: Not Quite a Ghost is a tender-yet-fierce hug of a story, complete with heartbreaking (and heartwarming) friendship ups and downs, a sensitive and honest exploration of invisible illness, and a truly creepy thing that lives inside the walls of a very special house. I want to press this beautiful book into the hands of everyone I know." — Claire Legrand, New York Times-bestselling author of Some Kind of Happiness
"Not Quite a Ghost is not quite like anything I've read. Insightful and creepy, surprising and tense, this ghost story is wonderfully and exuberantly human." — Eliot Schrefer, New York Times-bestselling author of The Darkness Outside Us
"Not Quite a Ghost is that rare book that manages to deeply satisfy on several levels: it's a delightfully creepy haunting; an authentically tender middle school friendship drama; and an all-too-realistic portrait of a girl whose undiagnosed illness is the scariest specter of all. I loved it." — Elana K. Arnold, award-winning author of A Boy Called Bat
"Anne Ursu hooks the reader through realistic, engaging characters and builds the suspense until it's unbearable. What exactly is haunting Violet? You'll get paper cuts on your fingertips turning the pages fast enough to find out." — J.A. White, author of Nightbooks
"Ursu draws on familiar elements of ghost stories and the renewed attention Long COVID has brought to chronic illness to create a deeply poignant exploration of what it means to be sick in a way the rest of the world dismisses." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
"Ursu maintains a light but decidedly eerie touch as she weaves her "not quite a ghost" story, in which the house itself becomes a character and slowly reveals its secrets. She simultaneously writes in a compelling way about difficult-to-diagnose, recurring illnesses." — Horn Book (starred review)
"This is a story about a haunted house—but it's also a fresh, modern look at unexplained health issues, COVID-19 anxiety, changing friendships, and blended families. Compulsively readable and relatable, Ursu's twisty middle grade novel is highly recommended." — School Library Journal (starred review)
"Ursu perceptively incorporates middle school drama into a page-turning tale about the difficulties of managing an invisible illness and any accompanying skepticism from friends and healthcare providers." — Publishers Weekly
"An empathetic examination of one girl's fight to regain normalcy, the narrative validates the reality of the unseen." — Booklist
JUV013020 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Marriage & Divorce
JUV069000 - Juvenile Fiction | Ghost Stories
Schools
Ghosts
Ghost stories
Moving, Household
Middle schools
Stepfamilies
Nightmares
School fiction
Wallpaper
