Summary [courtesy of Goodreads]: THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE (A HAUNTED) HOME. Willow has never had a place she can call home. With two parents in the military and a nomadic childhood, finding a place to make her own has become a total pipe dream. And when the family arrives at their latest stop—the historic Hadleigh House—Willow encounters something that doesn’t help her chances of staying put…GHOSTS! Hadleigh House’s spectral occupants have been scaring off would-be residents for decades, and they intend to keep the house to themselves. But Willow’s not about to let some nagging spirits force her to move for the millionth time. It’s just a matter of convincing Willow’s parents that this old house is the one for them—ghosts and all…
This graphic novel is so sweet and precious, even though it features ghosts and hellbeast demons. It’s sort of like if the old film Arsenic and Old Lace met the spunky, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer attitude of comics heroine Goldie Vance, with a dash of Lumberjanes monsters (or even a slightly harder-edged element, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer) thrown in. It’s solidly middle grade, but I think it’s enjoyable for all ages. (I mean, I got a massive kick out of it, and I’m old as hell, so).
I stumbled across it browsing my library’s new Hoopla comics, and I basically couldn’t gulp it down fast enough. The story revolves around Willow, a Black military kid who’s finally been promised a “forever home” after moving around for her entire childhood. The problem is that her forever home is LITERALLY the ‘forever’ home of a slew of undying ghosts, from a pair of old aunties (who I initially thought were lovers but were sadly revealed to be sisters) to a young WWI soldier to a young serially widowed woman (who possibly murdered her husbands?? But that’s ok, she’s sweet). Also, there’s a hellbeast who incarnates as a calico cat. What’s not to love??
The aunts have historically, actively ‘haunted’ the house to ensure it belongs to them and them alone (along with the other ghosts who are anchored to it), but in Willow they more than meet their match. Not only can she see and communicate with them, but she’s adamant about remaining in the home. After much ghostly mischief, some of it quite funny, they reach a detente (mostly then the aunts realize they quite like Willow’s family’s decorating style). By this point, Willow worries that her parents are trying to move again. Her new goal is to convince her parents that there are indeed ghosts in the house, but that it’s cool and they should stay put.
I won’t spoil everything, but suffice it to say that things go well, and there is certainly a happily-ever-after where they all become one big happy blended family. In the meantime, Willow solves some mini-mysteries with the ghost soldier and ghost widow.
Hijinks abound, but there are also deeper lessons in a lot of the plotlines. I loved how low the stakes turned out to be for the whole book, as well as how quickly potential conflicts got solved. I ADORE books like this, where everything works out in really generous and emotionally mature ways, and I love that this seems to be a trend in middle grade. I hope it catches on even more in YA and adult titles…