The same energy as the frst book but somehow it isn't as quite engaging. However, it's got all the elements that make a Grabenstein mystery what it is and I might say I'm not disappointed. ( )

Again, not something I'd normally pick up, but I did have so much fun w/the first that I chose to read this.  Fun MG adventure w/ charming characters.  Not more than that; don't expect literature.  Or nightmares, either.  Is there a third?  Zack still has unfinished business with his (abusive & dead) birth mother at the end of this.... ( )

So, how is it that one author can write so well to two different audiences and carry it off so well? I'm always boggled by an author who writes really well - but those (and there are many) who can do it for more than one series just amaze me.

This is the second in the YA series with Zack, his step-mother Judy and the problems they have with ghosts. This time Judy and Zack have traveled to the Hanging Hill Playhouse to produce one of Judy's books as a musical. This is a very old house and, of course, it has its fair share of ghosts. This time Zack is called the demon slayer and will be expected to stop bad (very bad) things from happening.

I seem to be reading a lot about ghosts or demons lately which is very strange because that isn't my normal fair. Still, I'll read anything that Chris Grabenstein writes - just because he writes so well and the story is always entertaining and the characters are so well drawn.

If you haven't started this series yet, don't let the fact that it is written for young adults hold you back, the stories are written for anyone who likes to read and loves a mystery. ( )

I think this book was good. It had a lot of things going on and it was very adventurous. There is always action.
Hanging Hills is about this little kid who sees ghosts and there not scary to him but there really annoying. His step mom is really nice and she is an author of "courteous cat," and this man is who is a director he directs plays, he is going to direct this book into a play. Later on the director finds out that his great grandfather was a magician that brought back the dead souls. He was very interested about this and he became the new magician. He brings out thieves and they have to listen to him but they can turn on him just like they did to his great grandfather.
The magician is planning a ritual for two kids that are born on the full moon. They must be on a full moon (which the demons call it the blood moon) because on this day the demons can physically move things and they can hurt people, so they become real people again. The magician has to sacrifice (burn them alive on a big golden statue part bull and part human) to kids that were born on the full moon. The magician got rid of the children’s parents by locking them in a coffin. At the end of the book the kids are saved and the parents are fine and the magician was killed by a demon. ( )

Full review at: http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/09/hanging-hill-by-chris-grabenstein.htm... ( )