A STIR OF BONES

Susan, 14, begins to find answers in this haunting ghost story, a prequel to A Red Heart of Memories (1999) and Past the Size of Dreaming (2001). If Susan doesn’t do exactly as she’s told, her incredibly controlling father beats her mother and explains that it’s Susan’s fault. She lies to carve out some time when she can visit a strange old house with a motley assortment of school friends. Susan can feel this house: its thoughts, its memories, and its history, the more so when the group meets Nathan, a teen ghost whose hanged skeleton still remains within its walls. Susan is deeply attracted to Nathan and begins to wonder if being dead might be preferable to her current life. A quiet climax offers hope but not resolution. The writing is controlled and effective; Susan and Nathan have vivid personalities almost in contrast to their silvery presences and the sentient house is a fine character. The best of the three. (Fiction. YA)