Lockwood & Co: The Hollow Boy: Book 3 (Lockwood & Co., 3)

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I do have a problem with the "Women, they're so emotional, they attract evil poltergeists and may bring death on us all" angle. Either way, it will be interesting to see if it turns out the way I think, or if it was all a trick by the author to throw me off. I'm so glad that today's kids have this kind of amazing writing and story-telling to read instead of some cheesy Goosebumps books (that while fun lack the depth of story telling and characterization we get here).

Each time I picked this book up I didn't want to put it down (resulting in two very late nights, lol). Even though the emotions elicited weren't all positive, this book definitely evoked a strong emotional response to the characters and what was happening to them. The elderly business owners don’t want to allow them in the house, but Lockwood charms them into opening their doors.There's a hint of romance, but I really appreciate it being a slow burn so it doesn't risk being sappy. There are some great action sequences (including a haunted house with a giant open stairwell that extends from the basement all the way to the attic, and a high-stakes chase scene at a parade - this series is just begging for a film adaptation, and I think it could also make a decent TV series), the ghosts and hauntings remain genuinely scary, and the dialogue is still clever and snarky as hell.

Lockwood and company have not received a invite to the Chelsea neighborhood because the main ghost agency branch (DEPRAC) are using more well known paranormal groups to fight all the ghosts and spirits.

Even with this indisputable fact, I remain incapable of picturing any of this happening anywhere other than Victorian or maybe pre-WWI England. We join our favorite agents, Lockwood, Lucy and George, as they learn to deal with the new found popularity of their agency. I thought this was a good addition to the series and the book starts off with the crew of Anthony Lockwood, George and Lucy tackling ghosts while there's a ghost epidemic brewing in the Chelsea neighborhood of London. They are immediately accosted by ghosts, and it isn’t hard to figure out these are what remains of the missing boarders of Lavender Lodge.

Well you know when the next book in a series is about to come out and you can't remember all the main details of the previous books? They are working comfortably as a small team, but all their time battling with the supernatural means that they have little time to keep things at headquarters organised. Ghouls and spectres, thrills and tension in this brand-new instalment in Jonathan Stroud’s bestselling series. The main case was solved but there weren't any clues as to who did it, as in the previous two books, and this seemed somewhat unsatisfying.Lots of tempting suggestions and questions arose, but with the book finishing abruptly I felt this one wasn't complete. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Lucy is delving deeper into Antony's past, and developing her ability to talk to ghosts, one that is admittedly dangerous. This time, there’s a big ghost breakout in London, which seems to get worse no matter what main agencies do. They try not to mind too much – after all, if everyone else is in Chelsea, that leaves the rest of London’s ghosts to deal with.

Meanwhile in flashbacks, Lockwood shares part of his past with Lucy and George by showing them the closed room of the house. In the meantime, Lucy has taken to carrying around the whispering skull in its jar, which now talks to her on a regular basis, being alternately insulting and helpful. I expected at least the cases had some kind of tiny connection to the main plot, but usually they didn't. By all means, put the brooding hero on the cover too, but you’re doing all the female ghost-hunting fans out there a MAJOR disservice by missing her off. Chill, miasma, malaise and creeping fear – you can feel them rolling at you down the alleys, or stealing out of the houses as you pass.It’s just the right mix to keep you thoroughly entertained and I’m convinced that this is the kind of book everyone – no matter how old or young - would appreciate on their shelf. Anyway, the Chelsea neighborhood of London has been experiencing an extraordinary rash of Visitors, so many that DEPRAC has recruited all the top ghosthunting agencies to deal with the outbreak. In May 1999, Stroud published his first children's novel, Buried Fire, which was the first of a line of fantasy/mythology children's books. But it's also easy to picture the story happening in some kind of steampunk universe, because the world Stroud has built is entirely devoid of pop culture for our fifteen-year-old heroes to reference.