X Marks the Haunt by Lindsay Currie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
12-year old, Will Stone, has some unique interests for his age, mainly stemming from his proximity to his Mom’s work at a local historic cemetery.
Will is well-versed in all things Graceland cemetery. He’s familiar with how all the burial vaults work, he knows where the most interesting markers lie, and he is a wiz at interpreting centuries old records. Not quite the typical past-times of his peers.
Because of all this, Will doesn’t have a ton of friends. He’s more of a loner. He does have a best friend, Stash, and no one is really mean to him, but he doesn’t have a big group he would generally pal around with.
When his class ends up taking a field trip to the cemetery, at first he’s horrified. He doesn’t want his classmates knowing his Mom works there, and she’s going to be guiding their tour. It’s instant panic mode for Will.
His Mom is a professional though, and ends up making it a fun and memorable visit for all the kids. Will is surprised by the interest a lot of his classmates show, and by the end of the day, he’s found he’s made a couple new friends.
Unfortunately, there is one kid that’s not as nice as the rest and he ends up pressuring Will into doing something he really doesn’t want to do. The result of this action is that a priceless crypt key ends up lost.
After that, Will’s peaceful existence in the cemetery goes awry. Trees start to die, the lake seems poisoned and Will begins hearing and seeing disturbing things.
It seems some sort of malevolent force has been unleashed, and Will, along with his new found friends, need to figure out how to put things back to rights. If they find the key, that should solve everything, right? Maybe, maybe not.
X Marks the Haunt is classic Lindsay Currie. If you’re a fan of her work, you definitely need to read this one. It’s once again set in the beautiful, historic city of Chicago and incorporates history so fluidly.
Will is extremely lovable and pure. I love how resourceful and naturally curious Currie makes her protagonists, but they’re also vulnerable and you can’t help but root for their success. I loved watching Will gain confidence around his peers over the course of the story.
He showed a lot of growth and we love to see that. I think as far as Middle Grade stories go, Currie is one of the best at making history, learning, books smarts, all those things, look cool, because they are, but not all kids see it that way.
Although I didn’t feel this was quite as spooky, or atmospheric, as some of Currie’s earlier works, I still loved these characters so much and the incorporation of the cemetery as the backdrop of the action was so fun.
If you are a fan of Spooky Middle Grade and for some reason haven’t read a Lindsay Currie book yet, you need to change that immediately. She’s the best in the biz, IMO.
Thank you to the publisher, Delacorte Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Currie has never disappointed me.
I look forward to everything she writes and will continue to do so for a long, long time!
