IT FOUND US

A 12-year-old girl pits her detective skills against a ghost to find a missing boy.

Despite her parents’ warnings against getting involved in the neighbors’ business and refusal to let her start a mystery-themed podcast, Hazel, who is cued white, can’t quell her passion for sleuthing. When Dennison, her older brother, sneaks out to play hide-and-seek in the cemetery, Hazel secretly follows. There, she hears chilling screams and howling—and is horrified when Den’s friend Everett disappears. The police are called, volunteers form a search party, and Hazel begins to investigate herself, leading her and Den to encounter a terrifying ghost with its mouth sewn shut. Who this ghost is and what drives its actions become the focus of Hazel’s investigation. An occasionally flippant tone undercuts genuinely creepy moments, while the mystery elements inconsistently mesh with the paranormal aspects to produce unfounded assumptions about the haunting. Excessive repetition comes across as not trusting readers’ abilities and insights. Hazel’s superior sleuthing abilities feel unsubstantiated when internet searches that should have occurred earlier in the story immediately yield vital clues late in the novel, and another character presents facts about the cemetery that most people in the community would know. The author’s note describes the real historical events behind the haunting.

A muddled mystery combined with horror elements.