Ghoulia lives a perfectly normal life in Crumbling Manor. A perfectly normal life if you're a zombie, that is. She has her dog, Tragedy, who is maybe a ghost and maybe not, her Auntie Departed, her Grandad Coffin... but sometimes she thinks it might be fun to go down to the village and have friends. Her Auntie thinks it will be dangerous and forbids her from leaving the walled manor, but then Ghoulia hears about a wonderful tradition called Halloween... maybe there's one night she can play with human children if she's careful? But what will happen if she forgets to keep up her disguise?
Deliciously creepy illustrations, tinged in orange, red, green, and brown show a sweet little girl (with the occasional lost limb), red-eyed dog, and all the ghastly accoutrements of a traditional haunted English manor. This is an illustrated chapter book, as opposed to a graphic novel. Each page is heavily illustrated and there are humorous captions, but the text is in fairly dense paragraphs and a smaller font than I look for in beginning chapters. It's definitely a very British creepy story, reminding me of Eva Ibbotson's Dahlesque ghost tales.
Verdict: This is going to be too challenging for most of the kids who want easy readers and even a lot of beginning chapter readers; while the zombie and ghosts are gross, they're not exactly scary as far as monsters or or things that go bump in the night. I'll try this one out in book club and see if it satisfies the creepy desires of my young readers.
ISBN: 9781419732935; Published August 2018 by Abrams; Borrowed from another library in my consortium
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