Scritch Scratch: 11/07/20

Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie is a middle grade horror novel set in Chicago. Claire's father runs a nighttime ghost tour through the historical haunted spots of the Windy City. Normally he has an assistant but on this particular night, Claire is forced to help her father.

Claire suffers from undiagnosed anxiety and going on the ghost tour is well beyond what she wants to do. She goes and manages to do a good but she still feels uneasy. At the end of the tour Claire spies a boy in wet old fashioned clothing. None of the tourists nor her father see him.

From that night onward, Claire is personally haunted by the ghost who was on the bus. Like some of the kids in Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (2019), Claire finds other children who are also affected by the ghost.

The pacing for this short book is intense. While written for a middle grade audience, I found myself needing to keep the lights on while I was reading the ebook! I also found myself getting curious about the history included in the book.

To avoid spoilers, I won't tell you who the ghost is. I will say that the book includes information for readers who want to learn more. The history is also online.

Claire's adventure to help the ghost puts the book on the road narrative spectrum. While Claire does have outside help in the form of a friend, the solution to her paranormal problem comes only after her entire family (33) is involved. While her parents can't see the ghost or the way he manifests in the house, they do believe her and her brother and they are willing to help.

The destination or goal is to help the ghost. To help Claire must understand what happened and that means learning about the past, as well as experiencing it directly through her paranormal connection. That means a journey to uhoria (CC).

The route to the solution is the tkaronto (FF). The journey involves paranormal paths through water, and finally a very real path where water meets the land.

All together Scritch Scratch is about a family traveling through uhoria via the tkaronto to help a ghost (33CCFF).

Five stars

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