THE HAUNTING OF LAKE LUCY — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“To imagine yourself inside another person…is what a story writer does in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too, I suppose.”
~ Eudora Welty ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I don’t know that I have seen many posts on dealing with the grief our characters feel when grief isn’t the story’s focus. HERE is an interesting post on the Story Empire Blog by D. Wallace Peach called Let Grief Touch Your Characters.

K. M. Allan always has something interesting and useful on her blog. Since perfect characters are both unrealistic and boring, HERE she discusses Character Flaws: Types and Guidelines.

No conflict, no story, as the saying goes. HERE Jan Fields from the Institute of Children’s Literature has a great article Defining Types of Conflict in Children’s Books.

I haven’t had a dog for several years. The last dog I had was a sweet little Maltese mix we rescued when he was three years old. He was the best dog I ever had, and when the time came that his health required me to let him go, it was so hard, I said I would never have another dog. But I just can’t go through the rest of my life without the companionship only a dog can give. So I have started searching for another rescue dog. Saturday I went to meet a terrier available through a local rescue, and I fell in love with him, but I was second in line according to the times of the applications, and I didn’t get him. I was surprised just how crushed I was by that. I have put in applications for some other dogs, but I haven’t heard anything back yet. Fingers crossed it doesn’t take too long for me to find the right friend.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of WILD WAVE by Rodman Philbrick to one of you. This week’s winner is Pete Springer. Congratulations, Pete, I will get your book out to you soon. If you don’t know Pete, he is a retired elementary school teacher and a writer. You can get to know him HERE at his site. His blog is always interesting.

Recently I won a copy of THE HAUNTING OF LAKE LUCY by Sandy Deutscher Green that was a giveaway on Carol Baldwin’s blog. I don’t usually read scary books, and there are some pretty scary moments in this one, but I was intrigued to find a middle-grade book described as horror-in-verse.

Twins, Jacye and Evie, at visiting Lake Lucy for the summer. They gather at the beach with other vacationing kids their age — thirteen — and as kids are wont to do, they start to tell stories. Of course, there are ghosts involved. How did the lake get its name? Who was the mysterious Lucy? There is only one local kid who lives year-round at the lake, Austin, and he tends to keep his distance.

The twins’ summer rental is next door to a creepy abandoned house, and their father warns them, in no uncertain terms, that they are to stay away from that place. Jayce starts having bad dreams and gets it in his head that the house next door has a ghost, and he decides to write a letter to the ghost. Evie bravely takes the letter to the mailbox by the creepy house. Blas, one of their summer friends, sneaks up and looks in the house. He sees a rowboat inside. Strange. The ghost answers Jayce’s letter, and they start a correspondence. Things get really interesting, and Austin shows up at the house starts making some unusual demands.

I had some issues with the book. First, i never knew how to pronounce the main character’s name. Jacye could be pronounced JC or Jace or some other way. And it was not clear for quite a while whether Jacye was a boy or a girl. The name could be either. It was frustrating. Green chose to write this book in verse. I found many places where the story seemed forced into verse, and there seemed to be no real reason to tell the story in verse. The verse wasn’t particularly lyrical. It just seemed an odd choice for a horror story. That said, all that white space might be appealing to reluctant readers. The story was certainly compelling and the characters were well-rounded and interesting. There were some great twists and turns that will keep readers engaged and turning pages. Kids will like this book more than I did, and that’s good. It was, after all, written for kids, not for grouchy old English teachers.

I have a gently-read paperback of this book to give to one of you. All you need to do is be a follower (it’s free and easy — see the top, right corner of the post) with a US Address, and leave a comment. If you share the link to this post on social media, please let me know in your comment, and you will get an extra chance. And please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.