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Spooked: The Theatre Ghosts
Welcome to Cod’s Bottom – the sleepy seaside town with a secret! Meet an unusual cast of ghosts in a laugh-out-loud new middle-grade series by the bestselling author of The Nothing to See Here Hotel. Perfect for fans of The Danger Gang and The Boy Who Grew Dragons.
There’s nothing out of the ordinary about ten-year-old Ella Griffin. Nothing at all . . . until she’s forced to move to the seaside town of Cod’s Bottom and everything changes. In search of adventure, Ella stumbles into an old abandoned theatre, but all is not as it seems. Because the theatre isn’t empty, it’s haunted by weird and wonderful ghosts, and they need her help to save them!
Praise for The Nothing to See Here Hotel:
'This book is so good you won't blunking believe it!' Tom Fletcher, author of The Danger Gang
'Hilariously funny and inventive' Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train Your Dragon
'A rip-roaring, swashbuckling, amazerous magical adventure. Comedy Gold.' Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry series
‘This hotel gets five stars from me.’ Liz Pichon, author of the Tom Gates series
There’s nothing out of the ordinary about ten-year-old Ella Griffin. Nothing at all . . . until she’s forced to move to the seaside town of Cod’s Bottom and everything changes. In search of adventure, Ella stumbles into an old abandoned theatre, but all is not as it seems. Because the theatre isn’t empty, it’s haunted by weird and wonderful ghosts, and they need her help to save them!
Praise for The Nothing to See Here Hotel:
'This book is so good you won't blunking believe it!' Tom Fletcher, author of The Danger Gang
'Hilariously funny and inventive' Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train Your Dragon
'A rip-roaring, swashbuckling, amazerous magical adventure. Comedy Gold.' Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry series
‘This hotel gets five stars from me.’ Liz Pichon, author of the Tom Gates series
- GenresMiddle GradeEbooks
272 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2022
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Steven Butler
132 books40 followersSteven is the award-winning author of the Nothing To See Here Hotel series (winner of the Sainsbury's Fiction Prize; shortlisted for the Laugh-Out-Loud "Lollies" award and Alligator's Mouth award; featured on W.H Smith's Tom Fletcher Bookclub), The Wrong Pong series (shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), his new adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey for Hachette's Awesomely Austen series, and his comedy collaboration with American author, James Patterson, the Dog Diaries series.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 10, 2022
Ella has been packed off by her single mother to Cod’s Bottom, and a life unlike the one she preferred back in London. En route to gaining new friends there she finds a wonderful and ruined Hippodrome performance space, and three local kids who love the theatricals a lot. The only thing is, the crumbling venue and the new potential mates come with the addition of a host of limelight-seeking ghosts of performers old…
This was no classic, for the very clear reason that this is too broad and blunt for adult perusal. Ella is borderline spectrum, as she needs to learn to like spaces by their sounds and has to write any and every potential list possible to organise her thoughts. The ‘stuck in a poor old seaside town’ shtick has been done so many times before and so much better (see “Looking for Emily”, for one), and once we go through some wonderful scenes of spookiness and intriguing premise and promise alike, the introductory parade of all the ghosts is ploddingly effusive in its energy – like being stuck on a trampoline and never able to dismount, I’d hazard to guess.
The author can write – with realistic detail, a warmth to the mother-daughter relationship and so on to perk this up for the target reader. But anyone older – say, eleven plus – will find this so unsubtle they might as well be treated like “dung-brained flapdoodles”. Which, when the romance of the theatre is a great intention of the plot and the mood, is a great shame. As are all the dropped bits of spectral intrigue, and as is the fact the real purpose of the narrative is revealed a whopping two thirds of the way in, by which point it’s been bloody obvious to everybody what the closing drama will be.
This was no classic, for the very clear reason that this is too broad and blunt for adult perusal. Ella is borderline spectrum, as she needs to learn to like spaces by their sounds and has to write any and every potential list possible to organise her thoughts. The ‘stuck in a poor old seaside town’ shtick has been done so many times before and so much better (see “Looking for Emily”, for one), and once we go through some wonderful scenes of spookiness and intriguing premise and promise alike, the introductory parade of all the ghosts is ploddingly effusive in its energy – like being stuck on a trampoline and never able to dismount, I’d hazard to guess.
The author can write – with realistic detail, a warmth to the mother-daughter relationship and so on to perk this up for the target reader. But anyone older – say, eleven plus – will find this so unsubtle they might as well be treated like “dung-brained flapdoodles”. Which, when the romance of the theatre is a great intention of the plot and the mood, is a great shame. As are all the dropped bits of spectral intrigue, and as is the fact the real purpose of the narrative is revealed a whopping two thirds of the way in, by which point it’s been bloody obvious to everybody what the closing drama will be.
September 4, 2022
Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.
Ella loves her life in London, her friends, her theatre group. Then she is moved to Cods Bottom the worst place imaginable. She is instantly drawn in by an old run down hippodrome and soon finds new friends her own age and ghostly friends.
This was good but I struggled to get into it. I liked the small town with it being so run down and dull, with bad weather constantly, nothing much for kids to even do in the small town. It really added to the feel of what was coming next in the story.
The ghosts were interesting and each one offered something different and unique to the story, they were all unalike and that was good. I really liked that we started getting hints before we even knew for sure also it made it a bit eerie to start with.
I liked that Ella found friends that were actors and had big imaginations just like her, she was finally able to start feeling better about being in this run down town having actually made some friends.
This book is really imaginative and I know that this would be a perfect book for children that like books a little bit spooky, with lots of friendship, humour and an array of unusual characters. Not to mention illustrations throughout that help tell the story and bring the characters to life.
Ella loves her life in London, her friends, her theatre group. Then she is moved to Cods Bottom the worst place imaginable. She is instantly drawn in by an old run down hippodrome and soon finds new friends her own age and ghostly friends.
This was good but I struggled to get into it. I liked the small town with it being so run down and dull, with bad weather constantly, nothing much for kids to even do in the small town. It really added to the feel of what was coming next in the story.
The ghosts were interesting and each one offered something different and unique to the story, they were all unalike and that was good. I really liked that we started getting hints before we even knew for sure also it made it a bit eerie to start with.
I liked that Ella found friends that were actors and had big imaginations just like her, she was finally able to start feeling better about being in this run down town having actually made some friends.
This book is really imaginative and I know that this would be a perfect book for children that like books a little bit spooky, with lots of friendship, humour and an array of unusual characters. Not to mention illustrations throughout that help tell the story and bring the characters to life.
August 1, 2025
This is great! Ghosts, a beloved theatre, a girl who’s passionate about standing up for what’s right and an irritating protagonist. When Ella moves to boring Cod’s Bottom, she doesn’t quite expect to make as many friends as she does and learns to use her voice for the best! This will be perfect in my class library!
March 12, 2023
[3.5]
It was sweet and funny but I really think pimple jokes should be written out of books, especially books for younger children. Lords know that if I grew up with books and media that didn't rely on pimples being the "comedic relief", I wouldn't have been so insecure as a kid.
It was sweet and funny but I really think pimple jokes should be written out of books, especially books for younger children. Lords know that if I grew up with books and media that didn't rely on pimples being the "comedic relief", I wouldn't have been so insecure as a kid.
September 5, 2022
I liked this book but I can’t say I loved it! It had some great moments but not the high quality I expect from this author!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews