Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie

 

On Friday, I finished reading Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie. This horror novel is about Claire, a girl who prefers science to the paranormal. When the bus driver of her dad's ghost-themed Chicago bus tours gets sick and has to cancel, Claire is roped into helping her dad despite her reluctance. During the tour, Claire notices unexplainable things happening and eventually sees a young boy at the back of the bus who is mysteriously gone when she checks for him at the very end of the tour. The only thing she finds in his place is a wet piece of paper with the number 396 on it. Soon, she begins to hear scratching and voices whispering in the dark. Then, she sees 396 again written on the wall of her shower and decides to tell her brother, Sam, that she's being haunted, leading them to investigate the history of haunted locations in Chicago. When the sad, dark-eyed boy follows her to school, she has to figure out what he wants before it's too late, even if it means asking her best friend, Casley, and Casley's new friend, Emily, for help.

This novel was very creepy and I enjoyed it so much. I had my suspicions about what had happened to the ghost boy who followed Claire after the bus tour because I saw an episode of the Disney Channel show, So Weird, about the same tragedy when I was a kid, but the story was no less suspenseful and compelling because of my previous knowledge. I didn't know exactly what the boy wanted or how Claire could help him. It was definitely quite the mystery as to why he chose her, but I thought it was pretty cool how Claire used the scientific method to solve it. I also really liked Claire's relationship with her brother, Sam, because not only is he the first one to believe her about being haunted, he also decides to help her when she agrees to help him with math. On the other hand, sometimes I just wanted to shake Claire when she kept pushing Casley away just because Casley befriended Emily, a girl with different interests, but I was really happy when they decided to all work together. It was nice seeing Claire open up instead of closing herself off to others and actually getting to know Emily. If you want to read a spooky tale that gives you the shivers, I highly recommend Scritch Scratch.