The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Netflix series impressed me based on a series of books by Jonathan Stroud called Lockwood and Co. about a group of teenagers who fight ghosts in England. I thought it was incredibly inventive. I think possibly the only problem with the series is that it seems to be limited to southern England. I was even more delighted after watching the series, which I meant to watch one at a time, but ended up binge-watching because it was that good. It was then that I found out it was based on a series of books, and I knew that had to be the next book series that I got into.
Thanks, Netflix, I suppose for going ahead and canceling this beautiful series before it had a chance. I like the soundtrack; I like the series; I think the casting was beautiful, and the books are great. I read the first book, The Screaming Staircase, and I liked it so much that I went and bought the rest of them and I’ve got them sitting on my virtual bedside table ready to go. I committed to reading the entire series, hoping that the show would include them, but then they canceled it. Way to go Netflix. I do not understand your current plans, because you seem to cancel all the good things that you brought so far. I don’t have any confidence anymore in a Netflix-produced show, because I don’t believe you’ll ever get to a 5th season or the ending of a character arc or pretty much anything.
So aside from the fact that I’m fairly disappointed that the Netflix show ended and interested because The Screaming Staircase took up the first half of the first season of the show, I like this book. When I got the rest of the books, it took me a little while and I came back and reread this one before I started in on any of the rest of them; I found it to be just as engaging as the first time I read it.
It’s got a great first-person voice in the form of Lucy, who keeps us interested in what’s going on. We get to join her as she grows up learning how to fight ghosts and knowing that all the kids have kind of potential end date to their usefulness as ghost hunters. Stroud has set us up with a situation, where people get older. They are less and less attuned to the supernatural, so their ability to deal with what the story calls the problem becomes diminished.
It’s a great read, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series of books that come behind it.
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