The Screaming Staircase

Do you like ghost stories? I love them. I spend a lot of time imagining the shapes I see at night are ghosts. My mother says that she is lucky I’m not scared of ghosts. I don’t know why she is lucky!

I was sooo happy to find this book by Jonathan Stroud. The screaming Staircase is the first book in the Lockwood series. If you love ghosts, adventure and action, you will like this book.

The world is haunted by ghosts of all kinds! Only children have the special powers to get rid of these ghosts. (Naturally!) There are different kinds of powers—some children can see the ghosts, others can feel (Yuck!) or hear them. Lucy’s power is that she can hear the dead. She comes to London and gets a job at the Lockwood agency, run by Anthony Lockwood, and his friend George. It is actually a very small agency. They are not always successful. During one of their jobs, they accidentally burn down a house. At that time, a very rich man asks them to solve a mystery at Combe Carey Hall, a very  famous haunted house. The story is about how they solve the mystery and get out alive.  

 Anthony is very secretive and sometimes I found him annoying, like a know it all. George is funny but I like Lucy the best. She is a no-nonsense person, and she and George always annoy each other. The thing I like about Lucy is that she doesn’t always know what to do and she is not afraid to say it. But in the end, they all work together to stay alive.

The book is fascinating because there are so many details about how the world is different with ghosts. It must have taken the author a long time to think of all that! Warning: The story is scary even though the characters are teenagers. But it is also very funny. Don’t go for this book if you get nightmares or are afraid of the dark. You will get creeped out.