Review: The Great Ghost Rescue

5 stars. 1 for being delightfully dark and spooky, which spoke to me as a kid (I can see so vividly my horror-loving origins); 1 for its heartfelt message against displacing populations who are different from your own - and forgiveness; 1 for its atmospheric setting; 1 for its tight pacing and writing; and 1 for the bravery of its two unlikely heroes: Rick and Humphrey the Horrible. 

Ghosts across Britain are facing a crisis. Uprooted by technology, modern society, industry, and capitalism - and all the buildings and highways that come with - these creatures are torn from their peaceful haunts and essentially made homeless. One family, forced by their Scottish ancestral home, has the good fortune to encounter a young boy who wants to help. Together, they hatch a plan to create a safe place for wandering souls: a sanctuary. Shenanigans ensue. 

Eva Ibbottson is one of the greats - I hate that she was marketed to "fans of J.K. Rowling" when I was a kid (which you can still find on the covers). To me, she is better. Sure, she has a sort of similar quirky sense of dark humor and whimsy when it comes to the supernatural (if you squint your eyes), and I guess they're both... British, but she's just simply a much better writer - from the big picture premise down to the sentence level. 

It holds up. Very funny, very witty, and very spooky. I have this weird anxiety around somehow "forcing" my kids to consume the media I enjoyed as a kid (dooming them to a torturously "uncool" existence, out of the loop on all current playground obsessions), but these are classics, right?! They aren't even problematic, right?! Being spooky is genetic, right?! It's actually my duty to give her a well-rounded, foundational education, right?!

The Great Ghost Rescue on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph