The Review: Tennis champion, Seattle denizen, popular high school junior Ele, Electra, O'Neill is displaced from her blissful, cushy life after her parents, history teacher dad and theater-struck mom determine to transfer the ménage to the old family stomping grounds in none other than apparition capitol of Montana. The extravagant O’Neills purpose to reinstate the antiquated and run-down Virginia City Theatre. As always Ele is counted upon by her parents to soon establish herself with the same honors, excellent grades and loads of friends. The scarcity of tennis courts and being disregarded at school do little to elevate Ele’s crestfallen appraisal of her new home. Ele’s young brother Eugene, the incessant ‘bad boy’ of the family remains true to form and is soon in trouble with the entire group he meets. To top it off Ele is convinced SOMETHING is in the decrepit theatre. Long dead Steven Douglas and his loathsome demise, the enigmatic tradition of The Innocents and inexplicable doings soon entangle Ele and her family in more drama than even her conspicuous, theatrical Mom might have expected.

What a captivating caper through the preternatural, certitude, fable and down right whimsical. Writer Haynes has crafted a reader’s delectation in her expertly woven anecdote centered upon the energetic, former days of Montana and the rambunctious people who were her early citizens. Haynes has created a collection of engaging characters from the captious Ele, the disagreeable cheerleaders at school and her annoyance of a little brother each is well defined and very believable. The writing in this absorbing chronology is burnished, well thought out and downright fun to read. It is kind of a ‘cozy’ Stephen King combined with the divertissement found in Paula Boyd’s Hot Enough To Kill.

Genre: Young Adult Author: Melinda Rucker Haynes Line/Publisher: Avid Press LLC ISBN: 1929613794 Reviewed by: molly martin

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