The Screaming Staircase
2013
- ghost stories
- paranormal fiction
- juvenile fiction
- fiction
- psychic ability
- haunted houses
- supernatural
- ghosts
- horror stories
- child and youth fiction
The story
*Follows three young operatives of a Psychic Detection Agency as they battle an epidemic of ghosts in London.* This book is part of a brilliant series for children (and parents) who love to be creeped out. It’s set in London when the city is experiencing an outbreak of ghosts who kill people if they come into contact with them. The catch: only children can see them. These stories features the kid-run ghosthunting agency, Lockwood & Co. — it’s led by the talented 14-year-old heroine Lucy Carlyle and charismatic teen Anthony Lockwood. Their job is to destroy ghosts by finding the objects in the world of the living that spirits are attached to. The social implications of the ghost epidemic are almost as chilling as the cases the agency takes on — almost. It’s a gripping read and a great intro to dystopian literature and social dynamics. You’ll want to sleep with the lights on, even after you’ve exhausted yourself by reading guiltily ahead late into the night.
What it’s like
Wry, brisk, and genuinely creepy, with a voice that keeps undercutting dread with teenage banter. The prose is quick and conversational, first-person in Lucy's sardonic register, so the London of the book comes through in fog-slicked streets, gaslit back rooms, cold dark houses and the sudden flat silence before a ghost arrives, rather than in lush description. Atmosphere leans on lamplight, candles that gutter out, and the eerie pale glow of spirits seen only by children, with sensory detail sharpened around smells, chill and the sick feeling of something watching from a doorway. Pacing is fast and chapter-driven, with cliffhangers that make it easy to read one more before bed. Violence exists and can be grisly: ghosts kill on contact, and some deaths and gory scenes are described plainly, though it stays on the young-adult side of graphic, with dread weighted above gore. Emotional register is adventurous and warm, following three young investigators who bicker, bond and slowly earn each other's trust in a world where adults are largely absent or unhelpful. Ideal for readers who want spooky late-night reading with a sense of humour, a dash of social unease, and a young-adult-friendly scare rather than something truly disturbing.
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