Spooked: The Haunting of Kit Connelly

by Paul Bryers

Twelve-year-old Kit Connelly has been saved from almost certain death ... by a ghost. A ghost who looks a lot like a fourteen-year-old version of herself.Believing that her ghost must have saved her for a reason and knowing that she only has two years left to make her mark, Kit decides to do something life-changing. But her plan to save the world takes her on a nightmare journey involving a crazed rock singer, an old World War II fort in the Thames Estuary - and a spectacular siege that brings Kit's story to a dramatic and surprising conclusion.Spooked is a tale of love and friendship, loss and loneliness, but above all, a story of growing up - and not always wanting to.

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 23, 2013

About the author

aka Seth Hunter

Paul Bryers is the author of many fine novels, the most recent of which is THE PRAYER OF THE BONE. He is a TV and film director when he is not writing and he lives in London.

Reviews

[Selan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty enjoyable, although the way the plot develops is a bit strange. It's only one of the few books I've recently read with an 11-year old protagonist who actually acts like they're 11 year old. And not, you know, like a woman in her mid 20s who's trying to write a teenage character.

So our main character is Kit, and she sees her ghost. Yup. That's what she thinks it is. When she almost gets run over by a bus, this ghost girl comes out of nowhere and saves her.

In the protagonist's own words, not mine, the ghost girl is dressed like an emo girl a few years above her, has attitude problems, and insults her when she gets near. Bit different from the last ghost I read about.

I like how it's written. Kit's parents are a bit at odds with each other (relationship problems which are explained later) but it doesn't go too overboard with the family stuff. I absolutely love Kit's friend, Nina, who is pretty batshit crazy. Love her. I don't know how to explain it. Like Kit has an idea, a really stupid idea, and then Nina comes along and makes it INSANE by involving the mass media...just crazy.

What's strange is that even though the book is supposed to be about Kit working out who the ghost girl is...halfway through, the plot stops being about the ghost at all. It's about this other guy called Leo Lyall (who is ALSO crazy, except more so. for some reason he reminded me of Johnny Depp).

And like, for a while they forget about the ghost and it gets a bit weird. but I don't care because I like how they do it.

Also, Boris Johnson turns up in this book.

I'm not kidding. He's in there. I couldn't believe it. He doesn't say anything silly unfortunately.

The ghost girl isn't fully explained until the very last minute - literally, two pages until the end of the book. For an instant I thought they'd REALLY forgotten about her. It was a bit sudden. And even then it isn't given much thought.

Definitely room for improvement but I enjoyed it overall and good for younger readers.

[Rifa.Rahmah123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kit Conelly nearly got killed when a bus nearly ran over her. But someone, or something had saved her. She was desperate to find out who saved her from the accident. When she decided to do something life-changing she met her idol Leo Lyall, things have gone wrong. The challenge she had to take is to put things right again and find out who had left all the gas in her grandma's house. What I really like about the book is that it's very convincing. I'd give it a 8/10

[Elizabeth Imrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very mixed up story.

[Gaby Meares · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I think the author accomplished what he set out to do - write an exciting, entertaining book for a reader about 11 years of age - the age of his main character. I thought the parents were portrayed sympathetically, and Kit 's reaction to their behaviour was believable. The end was a bit far fetched but it all made for a very easy read, full of adventure and a real page turner. I would recommend this novel to either boys or girls, and I think it could appeal to the more reluctant readers.