The Girl in White

by Lindsay Currie

Overview

For fans of Small Spaces and the Goosebumps series by R.L Stine comes a chilling story about a twelve-year old girl who must face down the most notorious ghost in her haunted East coast town to stop a centuries-old curse that threatens to destroy everything.

Mallory hasn't quite adapted to life in her new town of Eastport yet. Maybe it's because everyone is obsessed with keeping the town's reputation as the most cursed town in the US.

And thanks to the nightmares she's had since arriving, Mallory hardly sleeps. Combined with the unsettling sensation of being watched, she's quickly becoming convinced there's more to her town. Something darker.

When Mallory has a terrifying encounter with the same old woman from her dreams, she knows she has to do something—but what? With Eastport gearing up to celebrate the anniversary of their first recorded legend Mallory is forced to investigate the one legend she's always secretly been afraid of . . . Sweet Molly.

Pick up The Girl in White if you are looking for:

• A book for middle school students, 5th grade to 9th grade
• A story with a strong female protagonist that explores bravery, friendship, and family
• Mystery books for kids 9-12
• Chilling ghost stories and ghost books for kids (perfect for Halloween!)
• Historical mysteries for kids
• Spooky middle grade for fans of stories about Salem or Spooky Hollow

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728236544
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	52,162
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.05(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lindsay lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband and three kids. She loves coffee, Halloween, Disney World and things that go bump in the night! She is the author of Scritch Scratch, What Lives in the Woods, The Girl in White, and The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street. Visit her online at lindsaycurrie.com

Editorial Reviews

07/18/2022

Living in Eastport, Mass., the country’s “most cursed city,” is like celebrating Halloween every day, but 12-year-old narrator Mallory Denton, an aspiring travel photographer, doesn’t enjoy the unending festivities. Transplanted from Chicago, she struggles to adjust to the “quaint, yet foreboding” town, which revels in its supernatural reputation, hosting monthly parades, boasting shops filled with ghoulish garb, and celebrating the beloved 200-year-old legend of Molly Flanders McMulligan Marshall. Known as Sweet Molly, the resident cursed Eastport after her brother, a fishing boat captain, died at sea during a dangerous storm. While Mallory’s parents embrace the town’s macabre history, serving gravestone-shaped pancakes at their purportedly haunted, cemetery-adjacent restaurant, the tween endures nightmares of a frightening hag intent on harming her. As the October anniversary of Sweet Molly’s curse nears, Mallory’s constant nightmares take a turn when a wild-eyed woman appears, determined to unleash her wrath upon the town at whose insistence Sweet Molly’s brother set sail. Told through Mallory’s resolute first-person voice, Currie’s (What Lives in the Woods) middle grade debut brims with tension, spine-tingling terror, and convincing characters bravely facing a supernatural dilemma. Characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Shannon Hassan, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"In tense, fast-paced chapters, Currie concocts a chilling setting replete with haunting spectral scares... chillingly rendered" — Kirkus Reviews

"A satisfying spooky selection... would recommend this to kids... looking for a Goosebumps-style read" — Youth Services Book Review

"Charming and chilling in equal measure, I absolutely fell in love with Mallory and with the mist and the ghosts of Eastport." — Katherine Arden, New York Times Bestselling author of the Winternight Trilogy and the Small Spaces Quartet

"Currie’s middle grade novel brims with tension, spine-tingling terror, and convincing characters bravely facing a supernatural dilemma." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2022-06-22
A recent transplant wrestles with her seaside town’s complicated and ghostly history.

Twelve-year-old Mallory Denton has moved from Chicago to a tiny New England town. Eastport, Massachusetts, is a popular tourist destination, relying on its long and spooky history to keep its economy thriving. Its attractions include Mallory’s parents’ creepily themed restaurant that abuts a cemetery. Sweet Molly’s is Eastport’s most famous story, commemorated as the chief attraction in an annual parade. The legend tells of the time Molly Flanders McMulligan Marshall lost her twin brother, Liam, at sea when the townspeople pressured him to go out in his fishing boat even as a dangerous storm approached. After Mallory begins to see Molly in visions and nightmares, she must find a way to break Molly’s curse on the town before the vengeful ghost can exact her furious otherworldly revenge on the town that monetizes and celebrates her trauma. In tense, fast-paced chapters, Currie concocts a chilling setting replete with haunting spectral scares set in a town with an accessible but intriguingly complicated history. However, the thrills ultimately fizzle, as much is told rather than shown and pivotal plot points are revealed too soon and resolved too quickly and tidily. While some scenes are chillingly rendered, they lose their panache when juxtaposed against moments of cloying predictability. Most characters read as White.

Atmospheric but at times frustratingly flat. (Horror. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews