Spooky Middle Grade: Let the Monster Out and Ghostlight [Summer Reading Recap]

Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel

• Ghostlight follows a trio of friends around Toronto Islands and downtown Toronto as they team up with a ghost from 1839 to locate the titular ghostlight and defend Toronto’s living from a ghostly uprising. The plot follows a ‘treasure hunt’ structure, as the group works step by step following clues and getting items to take down the villain. I prefer other types of narrative structure. I found it slow going at times as they resolve ‘clue’ after ‘clue’.
• I believe The Nest contains Oppel’s best creepy writing. Ghostlight offers a completely different take on creepy. The worst moments in this novel for me were ones related to body horror. Overall, I didn’t find the story too scary, but then I had a nightmare based on the final page of the book, soooooo… Viker and Flynn make for great villains, the kind you can love to hate.
• I would have appreciated more page time devoted to the subplot of protagonist Gabe and his father, who died recently after being hit by a car and whose ghost still lingers. There were some great scenes exploring Gabe’s complex feelings about his father. That storyline could have been more fully explored, with its conclusion delivering a stronger impact if there had been steady build up to it.
• I can’t stand romance, and I am learning I especially can’t stand romance in Oppel’s novels. I still remember the romance in Every Hidden Thing making me frown, even though that is a young adult novel. While I still consider this upper middle grade, the romantic elements stretched that for me. A hallmark feature of middle grade which I love is a focus on family and friends, so I get impatient when a romantic storyline takes prominence in the way that it does in Ghostlight. (IE just a big crush between a guy and a girl, and not part of any identity discovery, which I think is romance’s most valuable role in middle grade, if it has to be present.)
• Reviews: Krysta @ Pages Unbound, Kathie @ Bit About Books, Laurie @ Bit About Books
• 💭 The Bottom Line: While this may not be Oppel’s best work, Ghostlight may find more appreciation from readers interested in Toronto’s history, budding but doomed romance, or vicious but not necessarily spooky ghosts.

Let the Monster Out by Chad Lucas

• I read Lucas’ debut Thanks A Lot, Universe last year. Objectively, I found it a great read. Subjectively, it was realistic fiction – not my favourite genre. So, I was excited to learn Lucas’ next book is a speculative fiction scary story.
• Let the Monster Out stars two protagonists. Bones has recently moved to small town Nova Scotia with his mother and his younger brothers. Bones is biracial (white mother and Black father). Bones’ father is out of the picture for reasons explored over the course of the story). Being one of the few Black kids in town comes with challenges, but Bones is finding his place on the baseball team. Also on the team is Kyle, a quieter white kid who believes he may be autistic. Bones and Kyle may not seem the likeliest friends – an unusual shared experience draws them to work together. Bones’ treatment of Kyle like an “ordinary kid” allows to build a real friendship.
• Bones is the prominent protagonist of the story, and the one to whom the titular phrase applies. Kyle, however, is just as keenly written. The two balance each other well. They have their own unique fears and challenges that they grapple with over the course of the novel.
• Two distinct protagonists allow Let the Monster Out to explore a lot of great themes. Lucas deftly weaves them together without the story feeling too heavyhanded or overcrowded. Not all of these themes can be boiled down to a single word. Here’s a few that I’ve come up with: teamwork, racism, neurodivergency, family dynamics, empathy, overcoming fear, coming into one’s own identity, and what it means to be a good friend.
• As for creep factor, I would say Let the Monster Out is roughly on the same level as Ghostlight. Less gruesome, a little more psychological. The plot (family moves to small town, everything seems great but kids realize things are not as they seem, there turns out to be a ‘supernatural’ element at play) has a lot of pop culture appeal, what with the everlasting pouplarity of Stranger Things et al. This book doesn’t have the most original plot, but Lucas uses it well to explore the characters and give them room to grow (something that the plot of Ghostlight doesn’t do at all).
• Reviews: Katy @ A Library Mama
  💭 The Bottom Line: A lightly scary yet intense story with heartfelt characters and great pacing, Let the Monster Out has plenty to offer for fans of horror or speculative middle grade.

Are there are any books you read this past summer that you still want to review?
Do you enjoy spooky stories?