Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Spirit Hunters is the 1st-installment in a Spooky Middle Grade series by Ellen Oh. This book follows Harper, a 7th-grader who has recently moved to a new town, along with her parents and younger brother, Michael.
As the Reader, you can tell that they’ve moved in part due to some sort of traumatizing event that’s happened in Harper’s life, but the truth behind that is slowly revealed over the course of the novel, instead of all at once.
This gives Harper a bit of mystery to her character, which captured my attention from the start. She’s a great character; one I was interested in getting to know.
There’s also mystery surrounding the new home they’ve moved into. Quickly, Michael starts acting strangely, talking about a friend no one else can see.
While his parents brush it off, children often develop imaginary friends during times of stress or upheaval, Harper is convinced something more is going on.
After making a new friend in the neighborhood, Harper then hears the stories of the house. It’s haunted. She knew it!
As Michael’s behavior continues to worsen, and living in the house becomes more disturbing, and even dangerous, Harper knows she needs to get to the bottom of the haunting and stop it, before it’s too late.
Spirit Hunters was such a fun and wild ride. This book, along with the next 2-books, have been sitting on my shelves for so long. I woke up one day in the mood for Middle Grade Horror, and decided it was finally time to give this one a go.
I’m so glad that I did. I loved all the characters and following along as Harper learned more about their new home, and about herself.
I loved how Oh created such a dark history for the house. It felt menacing, and I did feel a real intensity to the story as I began to fear for Harper and her safety. To me, sometimes MG authors may pull back, but I felt like Oh really dipped into Horror territory and I appreciated that.
The spirits in this story posed a real danger, and as the story raced towards the conclusion, I could not put it down. I had to know how it was going to turn out for Harper.
I also liked how this story explored Harper’s mental health in regard to a traumatic event that had happened in her past. It added depth to her character, and I liked how those details were included.
Overall, this exceeded my expectations, and I can’t wait to continue on with the rest of the series. I’m hoping to pick up the 2nd-book, Spirit Hunters #2: The Island of Monsters, very soon!