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Rating: 
Summary: You are so nice to come home to
Review: I just finished reading a couple of Young Adult gothics by John Bellairs, who liked to claim that his imagination got stuck at ten. His books really read like they're written from a child's perspective. Robert Westall writes in the same genre (YA ghost story) and "Ghost Abbey" is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl, but without the whimsy that is Bellairs's hallmark. It's a book written by an adult for children. On the positive side, the story is more complex than, say, Bellairs's "The Vengeance of the Witch-finder." In fact, "Ghost Abbey" reminds me of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" more than anything by Bellairs. Westall ends his work on a more positive note, but it's still eerily similar to Jackson's ending. A young teen-ager, Maggi takes care of her widowed father and her two cub-scout-aged twin brothers. There is also a slovenly housekeeper with the notion of marrying Maggi's father, who has 'kind, lost, blue eyes.' When a letter arrives asking Maggi's father, who is a master builder, to come fix up an old abbey, Maggi at least jumps at the opportunity to get away from the slovenly housekeeper and give her twin brothers a bit of a vacation in Chesire. She talks her father into going, and they all pile into the old Ford Transit van. Due to several mechanical breakdowns, the van doesn't arrive at the abbey until after dark. Let the spookiness begin! Westall really knows how to build an atmosphere, and although Maggi knows she shouldn't be wandering around in the dark, she absolutely has to find the loo before she can go to sleep. The author does a great job of combining the details of everyday life in an old abbey---how Maggi's father sets them up so that they can take hot baths; how Maggi manages her household allowance (the family eats lots of chips); how the lady of the Abbey gradually becomes part of the family---but Westall never lets his readers forget where they are or who else might be sharing the abbey with them. Although "Ghost Abbey" is a very family-oriented story, Westall has also written collections of ghost stories for the adult market (he's especially fond of feline ghost stories).
Rating:
Summary: You are so nice to come home to
Review: I just finished reading a couple of Young Adult gothics by John Bellairs, who liked to claim that his imagination got stuck at ten. His books really read like they're written from a child's perspective. Robert Westall writes in the same genre (YA ghost story) and "Ghost Abbey" is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl, but without the whimsy that is Bellairs's hallmark. It's a book written by an adult for children. On the positive side, the story is more complex than, say, Bellairs's "The Vengeance of the Witch-finder." In fact, "Ghost Abbey" reminds me of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" more than anything by Bellairs. Westall ends his work on a more positive note, but it's still eerily similar to Jackson's ending. A young teen-ager, Maggi takes care of her widowed father and her two cub-scout-aged twin brothers. There is also a slovenly housekeeper with the notion of marrying Maggi's father, who has 'kind, lost, blue eyes.' When a letter arrives asking Maggi's father, who is a master builder, to come fix up an old abbey, Maggi at least jumps at the opportunity to get away from the slovenly housekeeper and give her twin brothers a bit of a vacation in Chesire. She talks her father into going, and they all pile into the old Ford Transit van. Due to several mechanical breakdowns, the van doesn't arrive at the abbey until after dark. Let the spookiness begin! Westall really knows how to build an atmosphere, and although Maggi knows she shouldn't be wandering around in the dark, she absolutely has to find the loo before she can go to sleep. The author does a great job of combining the details of everyday life in an old abbey---how Maggi's father sets them up so that they can take hot baths; how Maggi manages her household allowance (the family eats lots of chips); how the lady of the Abbey gradually becomes part of the family---but Westall never lets his readers forget where they are or who else might be sharing the abbey with them. Although "Ghost Abbey" is a very family-oriented story, Westall has also written collections of ghost stories for the adult market (he's especially fond of feline ghost stories).
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T MESS WITH THIS PLACE--IT COULD KILL YOU!
Review: Twelve-year-old Maggi has her hands full in this English ghost story; everything from insolent louts and anachronistic ectoplasm to malevolent architecture. Having taken over as the Little Missus when her Mam died, she has to deal with a gone-to-seed carpenter father, horrid younger twin brothers, and a lazy floozy of a housekeeper with designs on Dad. Naturally father and daughter jump at the chance to refurbish an old abbey/house in Cheshire for an eager contractor friend, who believes in the Past. But who knows what awaits their arrival in their hopeful innocence for a new life? More than the schoolmarmish secretary for the Marigold Trust... To be sure the new place has ghosts as well as a sinister conscience. Maggi learns to be kind to the house and respectful of its ancient contents. Soon she starts talking To the house (so it won't consider her an enemy), for she has realized its power of retribution. Aye, this is one abbey that can take care of itself. I hope you are good at reading dialect, for it's quite a challenge for Yankee readers to decipher the meanings of British phrases, not to mention imagine in our mind's ear the sound of Dad's broad Tyneside accent. Nevertheless, this is an interesting read about a young girl's attempts to preserve her family in the face of supernatural forces. Will she ever discover the Abbey's true secret and win its approval? Girls 10-14 will enjoy this book, but be warned: don't mess with old teddy bears!
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