THE OLD WILLIS PLACE GRAPHIC NOVEL

What secrets does the Old Willis Place hold?

Lissa’s less than thrilled to be moving into a trailer near the Old Willis Place with her dad, who’s the new caretaker of the estate. As the two of them unpack, siblings Diana and Georgie watch from the shadows; they’ve been hiding out in the woods ever since the “bad thing…happened.” Fascinated by Lissa, they take first her bicycle, then her teddy bear. Lissa’s upset to discover her things gone, and her first glimpse of the disheveled Diana makes things even worse. Desperate for companionship, Diana scrawls an apology in Lissa’s diary, and a friendship quickly blossoms over Georgie’s protests; meanwhile, Lissa is drawn to the supposedly haunted old mansion, the one place on the property that Diana and Georgie aren’t supposed to enter, and finds herself in over her head. Featuring appropriately haunting images, this fast-moving adaptation of a cozy ghost story works well in graphic format; narrative elements are easily delineated from dialogue and feature deeper themes of guilt and forgiveness to ponder. Lissa’s short diary entries provide a change of pace and compelling emotional insight. Canine sidekick Macduff adds an extra thread of sweetness through a somewhat harrowing story with a heartwarming, if predictable, ending. Lissa appears to be biracial (her father presents white, her late mother was Black), while Diana and Georgie present white.

Suspenseful and creepy yet poignant—just the thing for budding horror fans.