Hello hello bookworms!

Happy Pride month! I hope you have some great things planned this month to celebrate. My weekends are almost completely booked already, and with Crypticon at the end of the month I’m super excited.

This past weekend was the calm before the storm of events that are going on, so naturally I read another book! This time I read Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie.

This book has been on my TBR for quite some time, and lucky for me my lovely sister gifted me a paperback version for Christmas. Yeah, that’s how behind I am lol!

I can never get enough spooky MG reads and this was my first time trying out this author’s works so I just dove right in.

On to the review!

Blurb

A ghost story about a malevolent spirit, an unlucky girl, and a haunting mystery that will tie the two together.

Claire has absolutely no interest in the paranormal. She’s a scientist, which is why she can’t think of anything worse than having to help out her dad on one of his ghost-themed Chicago bus tours. She thinks she’s made it through when she sees a boy with a sad face and dark eyes at the back of the bus. There’s something off about his presence, especially because when she checks at the end of the tour…he’s gone.

Claire tries to brush it off, she must be imagining things, letting her dad’s ghost stories get the best of her. But then the scratching starts. Voices whisper to her in the dark. The number 396 appears everywhere she turns. And the boy with the dark eyes starts following her.

Claire is being haunted. The boy from the bus wants something…and Claire needs to find out what before it’s too late.

GoodReads

Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

This was a delightfully spooky MG mystery read!

In this novel we follow twelve-year old Claire. She has an annoying older brother Sam, her mom runs an online bakery business, and her dad writes books about the paranormal. Claire is just trying to get through middle school under the radar, but when her dad runs out of options for an upcoming paranormal bus tour, she is forced to assist him. If that wasn’t bad enough, during the bus tour she sees a strange little boy and afterwards strange things start to happen. Can Claire figure things out before her life is totally wrecked?

I’ve gotta say, I was super impressed by how much fun this book was.

The characters really seal the deal from the beginning. Claire is a scientist in training so to speak and a skeptic, so she had an interesting point of view when it came to the paranormal happenings. She’s curious but intelligent, and I totally get where she was coming from with middle school. Those were probably the worst years of my life, so it was easy to root for her from the sidelines.

I also really loved Sam, Emily, and Casley. Their interactions with Claire felt real and they really came to life on the pages.

The paranormal theme was spooky but not too intense for younger readers. If you’re looking for true horror for youth I would suggest Kenneth Oppel’s works, but I classified this as a paranormal mystery. Each chapter is nice and short and moves quickly, and that kept me blazing through the novel. I also liked the life lessons of resolving issues with communication and trusting those close to you.

If you’re looking for a fun and spooky MG mystery, you can’t go wrong with this one!

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

Join My ARC Review Team | Subscribe

 Facebook | GoodReads | Bookbub | Instagram| YouTube