Two and a half stars. I hoped this could compare to "The Family Plot." I whipped through this in an hour, wishing it could be scary. It wasn't, and I scolded myself for being bored. Terry and Denise are unlikable to me, and I wondered often what the story would be like if it were told from Norman's or Dom's perspective. I love how Priest describes houses and how she does haunted, so I finished it. This uses Book Within A Book as clever foreshadowing, a task that is nigh impossible. I applaud the skill. ( )

I love haunted house stories so I grabbed The Agony House off my local library's young adult Halloween display shelves. Checking it out was a good decision.

Denise Farber was only four years old when her father and his mother died during Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in August of 2005. Interestingly, the characters in this book always refer to the hurricane only as 'the Storm'. She and her mother, Sally, moved away. Now Sally, and her second husband, Mike Cooper, have moved to New Orleans and bought a three-story Victorian house, the only one remaining on Argonne Street, to restore and turn into a bed-and-breakfast. Denise would like to grab the keys to their U-Haul and head back for Houston, Texas. She wants to spend her senior year in high school with her friends Trish, Kim, and Bonnie, not in exile here. (The Army transferred my mom's job upstate the summer before my senior year, so I can sympathize.) It's eight months until her 18th birthday. Denise can't strike out on her own yet. Well, not without legal hassles because her mother loves her. Mike seems fond of her.

Sally and Mike are getting business loans, but they're not getting the money all at once. It's hot and humid, of course, and the air conditioning isn't working. I'm 65 and spent a good chunk of my girlhood without so much as one window air conditioner in our various houses. Electric fans, even ceiling ones, just don't compare. Poor Denise and family! Does the house deserve the name Denise calls it to herself: Agony House?

If Denise wants to use her old laptop for internet searching, she has to take it to a restaurant called 'Crispy's'. Good thing they have some dollar items on their menu. It's Norman, a nice black kid about her age, who tells her about Crispy's when he delivers a pizza to her house. There she meets Norman's cousin, Dominique. Dominique isn't as nice, but she has her reasons. Before that meeting, Denise meets another neighborhood teen, Terry Jones. He's a chubby boy who has wanted to see the inside of the house for years. Denise already has a reason to believe the house is haunted before Terry tells her a famous writer died there.

Together they discover the last work of writer and artist Joseph P. Vaughn, who worked during the Golden Age of comics (1938-1956). It was carefully wrapped up. We get pages from the comic book here and there for the rest of the novel. I liked this adventure of Lucinda Might and her boyfriend-in-distress, Doug. I wish there were more issues. (That's part of Lucinda's head -- mainly the eyes -- that's seen at the top of the cover and at the start of each chapter.) Denise's research turns up some intriguing information.

Terry is a would-be paranormal researcher. His attempts to capture a ghost's voice work. The first possible ghost that Denise encountered seemed pleasant. Not this ghost. The second ghost is malevolent. Denise and her stepfather start having 'accidents'. Can anything be done before someone gets killed?

NOTES:

Chapter 1:

a. Sally plans to name the B&B 'Desa Miranda' for her late mother-in-law as they work to bring the MIL's dream to life.

b. 'Bienvenue' is French for 'welcome'.

Chapter 2:

a. Denise tells us a little about her biological father, Billy.

b. We meet Norman (named for his Aunt Norma).

Chapter 3: There's some backstory about places Denise and her mother lived. Also, Denise has a new uncle-by-marriage, James.

Chapter 4:

a. Terry Jones shows up.

b. Pages 46 - 52 are the first pages of the manuscript.

Mentions: Yelp, FEMA trailers, EMF meter, and 'Them' (1954 film)

Chapter 5:

a. The first comic book came out in 1933, so no, they haven't been around for a hundred years.

b. We get a fictional Wikipedia article on Joseph P. Vaughn. The Comics Code Authority was real. It was still enforced when I started buying comics in 1968. I remember that when Marvel started publishing stories about a zombie character in the 1970s, they had to call him a 'zuvembie' because the term 'zombie' was banned by the code.

Mentions: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Marvel (Comics), Craigslist, Wikipedia, and the Comics Code Authority

Chapter 7: Denise meets Dominique at Crispy's.

Mentions: Nail house, carpetbagger, Florida, California, New York, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Chapter 8: Pages 93 - 96 and 98 - 100 are the next Lucinda Might comic book section.

Mention: McDonald's

Chapter 10: See more Lucinda Might on page 111.

Chapter 12: See pages 138, 139, 141 - 144, & 152 - 154 for more Lucinda Might.
Mention: white privilege zone,

Chapter 13: We're back to Lucinda Might on pages 156 - 158 and 166 - 169.
Mention: Motel 6

Chapter 15:

a. Denise and Norman visit Tulane University and the market.

b. Denise learns the name of the woman who owned Agony House in the 1950s: Vera Westbrook

Mentions: St. Claude Avenue, gentrifiers

Chapter 16: Pages 213 - 216 have more Lucinda Might

Mention: Aquafina

Chapter 18: See pages 231 - 233 for the end of the Lucinda Might comic.

The malevolent ghost's attempts to get Denise and her family to leave the house were most unpleasant, to put it mildly. That last attempt was really nasty. Can't say I blame Dominique's attitude toward Denise at first. I've read about the shameful way some white persons who move into a gentrifying neighborhood treat the original black inhabitants. The 'haint' blue ceilings on porches in New Orleans was interesting to read about. I blush to admit that I didn't guess the big secret.

How much did I enjoy Agony House? I renewed it so I could reread it on Halloween. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from a giveaway. So I was so excited for this book, it looked like something right up my alley and it was!

While it took me so long to finish I truly don't know, but I always came back to it and it was enough important that I could pick it up and not at all wonder what had happened last time if been reading.

I feel like the book was a little over wordy at times and I found myself anxious to solve the mystery. The characters were all pretty enjoyable. It also made me remember how visual I really am and I adored the comic parts.
( )

Student Review by: Hayley K (12th grade)
Grade range: 8th Grade and up
Genre: Horror
Literary Merit: Great
Characterization: Great
Review:
Denise Farber, her mom, and step-dad have recently moved from Texas to her hometown of New Orleans. Denise hasn’t been back to Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina, which tragically swept away her dad during the storm. The family scavenged up the last of the family’s saving to complete a dream they always had: to fix a worn and torn historical house into a bed and breakfast. Once the renovation begin, they have to stop immediately because more and more problems are making themselves known at the most inconvenient times. Unexplained noises also seem to echo throughout the strangest places, and Denise sometimes sees footprints that don’t match hers or her parents. One day, Denise enters the attic and uncovers a stored away comic book that has been carefully preserved. She does her digging and finds out the comic is from the 1950s and it was the last installment of a story called Lucida Might. Denise suspects that her house is haunted as she begins to read the comic, and accidents that happen in the comic start to coincidentally happen to her family in real life. She must finish reading the comic and solve the mystery of the Argonne house while trying to survive a vengeful ghost.

The Agony House has twists and turns as the mystery of the story is unraveled. Readers get to experience the last installment of Lucida Might with Denise through a visual representation of the comics throughout the novel. The plot carries out like a 1950s mystery and drops hints visually as bits and pieces throughout the comic to unravel the truth. The story also features a paranormal adventure that gets the whole town involved. Denise is an enjoyable character and has a nice personality that readers will enjoy. The writing was simple and not hard to understand making it quite an easy read.

Recommendation: Anyone who enjoys a nice ghost adventure and a good mystery.

My Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed I am Princess X, so I was excited to see what the author would do with a haunted house story. Unfortunately, this novel did not live up to the expectations I had based on her first book. I listened to the audio version of this book, which probably made some of the issues a little more glaring. Before I get into the negative, there were a few things I did like about the book. The artwork was engaging, and in the audio version, those sections had a completely different sound, kind of like a radio drama from the good old days. I liked the New Orleans setting and that the author attempted to explore the plight of people whose lives were changed by hurricane Katrina, both those who stayed in New Orleans and those that left and came back.

Problem #1 - The book’s main character is seventeen and already thinking about going on to college after her final year of high school, yet the novel reads more middle grade than young adult.

Problem #2 - The writing is really clunky at times especially when describing Denise’s use of her phone. There are sentences such as Denise called up the internet browser app on her phone and performed a search. This is very stilted and robotic phrasing and unnecessary explanation of an act that most teens do without a second thought. Why not just say she used her phone to search for ____?

Problem #3 - There is too much dialogue and it’s not very good.

Problem #4 - The book was written in third person limited omniscient point of view, so the reader knows everything Denise is thinking and feeling.

Problem #5 - Based on the cover and the synopsis, I expected this book to be scary or at least spooky. I was grossed out a couple of times (when Denise is accidentally stabbed with a nail and decides not to tell her parents or see a doctor), but the book was never scary or even suspenseful for me. Going back to problem #1, I think this may have been partly what gave it the feel of a book for younger readers who aren’t ready for really scary horror. ( )

A girl moves to New Orleans, only to find a mystery awaits her in the form of a malignant spirit, haunting her new home.