THE HOUSE ON YEET STREET

A fearless foursome in small-town Massachusetts confront an evil curse.

Thirteen-year-old Aidan is secretly in love with one of his best friends, and he expresses that love through a fan fiction–style story he writes in secret. When Aidan and the gang—swoony Kai, know-it-all Terrance, and snarky Zephyr—explore Witch House, the dilapidated haunted mansion on Yeet Street (formerly owned by a wealthy Swedish immigrant from the 1920s), Aidan decides to get rid of the evidence of his crush. He tosses his fan fiction notebook through a busted window. Upon discovering it, mean girl Bea, who works out the identities of the main characters, posts the story, making it go viral, but Aidan has other things on his mind. A spine-tingling phantasm called the Backwards Lady keeps appearing around town, and Aidan also befriends blood-covered Gabby, the spirit of a legendary local girl who was found dead in Witch House 20 years ago. Part coming-out narrative, part ghost story, and part historical fiction, the story struggles to escape the grasp of a passive writing style that’s heavy on telling, reducing the impact of the creepy and emotional moments alike. Most of the predominantly white-cued characters (Terrance presents Black) are broadly drawn and come across as one-note. Some unexamined hurtful humor and a few odd moments, like a teenager cheerfully describing “traps” (“these girls are boys”), also mar the storytelling.

Falls short of its promising premise.