'The Screaming Staircase' review... no spoilers

'The Screaming Staircase' by Jonathon Stroud

 

'Hauntings are our business...'

 

This is Jonathon Stroud's newest novel released early this year/ late last year; its a young adult dystopian where the world is plagued with ghosts that only children can see. So children set up these organisations where they hunt and destroy sed ghosties and earn money.

This story follows a failing company in its attempt to solve one of the worst ghost occurrences since the plague started; it has already claimed countless other hunters but everything is not what it seems. It is the perfect mix of paranormal fantasy and mystery; the way the book is told helps with the extra-ordinarily.

This book does not go in a straight line; but rather contains flash backs and sections where the reader can make links easier than thinking all the way back to the first few pages to make a connection at the end. Now not many authors can pull this technique off easily, but Jonathon Stroud pulled it off amazingly.

Now  I'm not saying this book is perfect; the characters were really quite good but it was hard to tell that they were children, most of the characters are pre-teen and yet they act and talk as if they are mid-thirties. There is only one element of the book where you can truly tell that they are children and that is a shame because I think this would be an element that could have been played with to a great advantage.

Overall I would give this 4/5 stars; to get 5 stars the characters would need a lot more development... however I have a feeling that this is the start of a wonderful series exploring this plague of ghosts.