The Goolz family moves next door to twelve-year-old Harold and his mom and life in quiet Bay Harbor, Maine will never be the same.  Harold, confined to a wheelchair after an accidental fall from a tree, has not yet found is foothold in Bay Harbor, struggling to make friends and easily becoming a target for Alex Hewitt and his vicious gang.  Harold has come home more than once with scrapes and cuts from encounters with the bullies. However, all that changes when Ilona Goolz becomes Harold’s friend. She is brave and fearless and also accustomed to dealing with creatures far worse than bullies.  Ilona’s father is world-famous author Frank Goolz who writes terrifying horror novels and it turns out that his inspiration for his vampire/ghost/monster gore actually comes from his family’s real and harrowing experiences. Now in Bay Harbor, a ghost is hunting the bullies and the same power (an ancient stone) that has brought the ghost back to the living world is threatening to take someone from the living back to hell.  This is an intensely taut and unsettling title for middle school readers. Some may find the demonic being just a little too violent but the new friendship that grows between Harold and Ilona is sweet and funny and helps to balance out this scary ghost story.

Reviewed by Suzanne Dix, Westbrook Middle School, Westbrook