Paige McKenzie

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl is about, appropriately enough, a girl named Sunshine, who has just turned sixteen when her mother is offered a job in Washington State. When they move into their new home, Sunshine immediately senses that things in this house are not as they should be. Unexplainable things begin to occur in the house, as Sunshine's mother, Kat, becomes more and more distant and irritable. At her new school, Sunshine meets Nolan, who believes the stories she tells him are true and begins to help her piece together what is happening in her house. This book is well written. Sunshine's troubles and emotions are easily identifiable even though the events are scary and other-worldly. I believe that young adults are going to love this book based on the original series, which appears on youtube.com.… (mehr)

This was a pretty cute little mystery, about teen witches who receive mysterious anti-witch threats in a world where witch discrimination is a (sliiightly heavy-handed) allegory for racism & homophobia. It's definitely written for a younger YA age group and it's self-aware in its silliness, but I think the upbeat narration and fun characters will be really charming to the right audience.

Though it's a bit rough-going at times. With 5 POVs and 7 main characters, it feels like information needs to be repeated a thousand times before the mystery-solving can take another step. As well, it's definitely a weird set up for a sequel, which left it feeling like it didn't have any payoff. Also if it gets good traction, I expect it to get political criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Regardless, fun premise, fun characters, hovering next to middle grade, and near impossible to put down.… (mehr)