Riley's Ghost

November 1, 2021
Haunted by both middle school classmates and actual ghosts, a tween gets caught in a frightful situation. Thirteen-year-old Riley Flynn, a sensitive, caring vegetarian, struggles to fit in at Northridge Middle School, where she is viciously bullied. Her social situation goes from bad to worse when her refusal to dissect a frog in science class prompts a jock classmate to cruelly prank her. The prank sets off a chain of events that ultimately land Riley locked in the science lab supply closet after school hours by some cruel girls. Riley escapes the closet only to discover she's trapped inside the school. Her only companion is Max, the ghost of a dead man who has possessed the body of a half-dissected frog. Max warns of another, more dangerous ghost. Between mysterious messages, strange noises, and glimpses of memories that aren't her own, can Riley survive the school's haunted halls and make it out alive? Anderson's latest carries a similar anti-bullying message to his Posted (2017), although packaged with creepy, ghoulish fare. The steadily paced narrative mixes Riley's memories with present horrors, giving a periodic reprieve from chills and thrills. Overall, this ghost story is more character-driven than pulse-pounding. Its slowly unraveling central mystery presents a humanizing account of outcasts, the friends who betray them, and the trauma that follows. Riley and the majority of the cast are coded White. School-based spooks backed by a strong social message. (Paranormal. 10-14)

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November 8, 2021
White seventh grader Riley Flynn is still smarting from being rejected by her best friend Emily when a run-in with a group of “vindictive volleyballers” angry about an altercation in science class concludes with Riley being locked in a supply closet long after school ends. After escaping the closet, Riley discovers that she has bigger problems: the school doors are locked tight, the phones aren’t working, and a dissected frog from science lab that claims to be a vessel for a ghost follows her, trying to communicate something. As Riley searches for an exit, the lights go out and she begins to see visions, “like a movie projected onto the inside of her skull,” of someone else’s tortured middle school memories. Riley, sensitive and lonely yet given to bouts of rage, is an appealingly honest middle school protagonist; Anderson (One Last Shot) begins chapters with memories of her past that relate to her current predicament, adding context to the tween’s social struggles. Though a bit overstuffed at times, the well paced, legitimately creepy tale powerfully conveys the pain of being a middle school outcast—and the importance of being seen. Ages 8–12. Agent: Josh Adams, Adams Literary.

Starred review from January 21, 2022

Gr 5 Up-"Sadists. Barbarians. Seventh graders." Riley Flynn (who appears white) is locked inside her middle school after the last bell rings along with a possessed lab frog, the malevolent ghost of a former student, and memories of classmates who tease her mercilessly. As Riley tries to break out, her thoughts drift to daily life. She fights back against the bullies, but that's done more to cement her reputation as a misanthrope than it's done to slow the jeers. After school she comes home to lonely TV dinners while her parents work long shifts, and sometimes she lays in bed imagining what it feels like to die. Though she doesn't see it at first, Riley's parents show love, support, teach responsibility, encourage grit, and see her for who she truly is. As she uncovers who the ghost is and what it wants from her, what she learns shifts her perspective on her own life and helps her glimpse a future that might be better. Riley's feelings of fear, anger, sadness, frustration and hopelessness will resonate with early teen readers who are feeling high levels of stress, or who feel like outsiders. Like Ms. Bixby's Last Day, this book has a quiet pace and centers on the importance of friendship, the transformative power of being seen, and the gentle miracles they create when combined. It's also filled with the messiness of personal growth, the pain of adolescent friendships, a nuanced portrayal of being bullied/being the bully, and a sensitive look at adolescent mental health. VERDICT Lots of humor, a little horror, and a dash of the bizarre round things out. Highly recommended.-Amy Fellows

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2022
The tone is clear from the first page of Anderson's (Stowaway, rev. 11/21) latest middle-grade novel, as narrator Riley Flynn assesses her classmates: "Sadists. Barbarians. Seventh graders." Riley, a perpetual outsider, has opted out of the class frog dissection, making her the object of practical jokes. At the end of the school day, she's locked in a closet -- along with the mutilated frogs -- by a group of popular girls. Riley manages to escape but finds herself unable to exit the now-empty school: doors won't open, phones don't work, and the power goes out when she tries pulling the fire alarm. And it turns out there are ghosts keeping Riley company. Max, a middle-aged man who died recently, inhabits one of the dissection specimens, and he's stuck in the school because of his connection to Heather, a student similarly tormented by her classmates. As Riley solves the mystery of Heather, she also explores her own history, with flashbacks revealing how she ended up on the fringes of social structure. The story, in its exploration of female anger with a side of malevolent spirits, is like Carrie for tweens and young teens. Riley is a multi-layered and sympathetic protagonist, and Anderson gets the blend of the supernatural and psychological right. Sarah Rettger

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from December 1, 2021
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* In this terrifying, gut-wrenching, profoundly poignant vision of middle school, a seventh-grade outsider is trapped in the dark with two ghostly graduates. As if seeing her best and only friend Emily hanging out with the bullies who have locked her into a supply closet isn't disturbing enough, Riley soon finds herself in a dark, empty building where the clocks have stopped and none of the doors or windows will open, and she is caught up in a conflict between Max and Heather, two once very close students who died decades before with unfinished business between them. Parts of this are really creepy, and parts are really gross (particularly those involving a possessed, half-dissected frog from science class). And that's not just the supernatural elements either, considering the whisper campaigns, covert harassment, and soul-sucking pressure to conform that is Riley's--and, it turns out, Heather's--experience of middle school. It's Riley's eventual realization that everyone deserves to be seen and heard by someone, to be remembered, that both provides the key to her escape and allows Anderson to pull off an unexpectedly upbeat, and reassuring, ending. A tale to test the nerve of all fifth-graders who are looking ahead to junior high and finding themselves anxious about what's in store.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2022
The tone is clear from the first page of Anderson's (Stowaway, rev. 11/21) latest middle-grade novel, as narrator Riley Flynn assesses her classmates: "Sadists. Barbarians. Seventh graders." Riley, a perpetual outsider, has opted out of the class frog dissection, making her the object of practical jokes. At the end of the school day, she's locked in a closet -- along with the mutilated frogs -- by a group of popular girls. Riley manages to escape but finds herself unable to exit the now-empty school: doors won't open, phones don't work, and the power goes out when she tries pulling the fire alarm. And it turns out there are ghosts keeping Riley company. Max, a middle-aged man who died recently, inhabits one of the dissection specimens, and he's stuck in the school because of his connection to Heather, a student similarly tormented by her classmates. As Riley solves the mystery of Heather, she also explores her own history, with flashbacks revealing how she ended up on the fringes of social structure. The story, in its exploration of female anger with a side of malevolent spirits, is like Carrie for tweens and young teens. Riley is a multilayered and sympathetic protagonist, and Anderson gets the blend of the supernatural and psychological right.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)