Haint Misbehavin’ (Ghost Handler 1)
- Maureen Hardegree
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books – published 7th January 2011
It's hard enough being fourteen years old without having ghosts bugging you for stuff. Heather Tildy can't escape them; she's a ghost magnet, a natural "ghost handler" and so the spookies not only demand her advice, they meddle in her life. Which makes family stuff, boys, and high school even weirder than they already are. Welcome to The Ghost Handler Series, following Heather's adventures as BFTG-a Best Friend To Ghosts. What's a girl to do when puberty arrives with a complaint worse than cramps and bloating... a mischievous ghost friend?
This is an advanced review courtesy of Bell Bridge Books and netgallery.
What a fun book! Heather has two aims in her summer break – to make her older sister like her so she doesn’t start high school with the weirdo label and for the hunky pool lifeguard, Drew to finally notice her. However, things don’t go exactly as planned when she starts seeing ghosts in her back garden. Heather is your typical teenager and her voice comes through loud and clear. Her plans and wants are important – the most important things in the world. Her parents aren’t fair and favour her older sister. No-one has a harder life. Why does it always happen to her? It all reminded me so much of being a teenager – Maureen Hardegree has perfectly captured the voice a typical teenager, but that’s not say Heather is a brat. She may act like it at times and doesn’t want to tell anyone she now has her own ghost following her around, but she knows what’s right and what wrong. There is a sympathy for her as she struggles with everyday life and she does care about what happens to Amy, her new ghost friend. It just takes a long time to seriously try to do something to help her as she is so focused on her own life.
There are some fun scenes in the book where Heather tries to cope with Amy’s mischievous behaviour that had me snickering to myself. I found this a perfect remedy to all the typical teen angst in YA fiction today. I would recommend for a fun, light hearted read.
By the way Haint is Georgian speak for ghost – I didn’t know before I read the book but it makes a great title!
Recommended for fans of Isobelle Carmody and LJ Smith 7.5 out of 10
This is one of the books that I also got via NetGalley that's been sitting on my TBR ile for far too long. I'm going to have to get around to reading it soon; I rather like LJ Smith's stuff, for the most part, so at least it's got a favourable review and comarison to an author I like.
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