Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Riley's Ghost by John David Anderson

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Riley's Ghost by John David Anderson. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~8 hours. Read by Lillie Ricciardi. Walden Pond Press, January, 2022. 9780063219601.

Happy Monday! My Memorial Day weekend had a wild, wet and wooly start, but yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and I got a lot of yard work done, including mowing my lawn after my no-mow May. My neighbors are probably relieved. 

Middle Grade Monday featurs Riley's Ghost by John David Anderson. I am going to be a bit opaque with my description so as not to give too much away here. Riley is a bit of an outcast with a reputation and some serious impulse control issues. She refused to dissect a frog in her science class, so she's doing a VR dissection when the class alpha male plays a cruel prank on her. He gets in trouble, which makes the resident mean girl upset, so she and her posse, which includes Riley's former best friend, lock Riley in the science closet after school. Imagine being locked into a science closet surrounded by plastic bags filled with trays of dissected frogs. Imagine one of those frogs becoming animated. Imaging getting out of that closet only to find that you can't leave the school. Every door is locked. None of the phones work and neither does the fire alarm, which Riley decides to pull. And then the voices start...

Mr. Anderson is a student favorite at TMS. I haven't read all of his books, but have enjoyed what I've read. I didn't love this one. The pace was glacial and Riley was just so unsympathetic.

And, I was bugged by one glaring error in chapter 41 (I think). I was gardening while I listened, but it stopped me dead. Then, on Monday, I pulled my library copy from the shelf to double-check and, sure enough, I heard correctly. A full moon is described in the beginning of the chapter and later on, in the same chapter on the same night, it's suddenly a crescent moon. Sorry, but stuff like that just bugs me.