The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn

Florence is going to finally get away from Mrs. Medleycoate's Home for Orphan Girls. Even more importantly from Mrs. Medleycoate herself. She will miss her friends but she will finally have new clothes and warm meals. She also has two cousins that she intends on befriending. She's an ordinary type of girl who loves to read all the big classics like Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice. Her aunt wants to hear nothing of it. Nothing of her because she actually only has one cousin left. Sophia died last year and she was so ever cherished and spoiled rotten by her Aunt Eugenie. She was talented, beautiful, and clever. She had grace and style and... you get the idea. Her uncle on the on the hand does say how everyone isn't perfect...

Now where is that other cousin? He's up in his room all thin and pale almost like a ghost or maybe like he's seen a ghost... Sophia is still around and out for revenge. Her brother must die and she has decided that Florence is going to help her do it!

You know how I'm not the biggest fan of classics? I couldn't bear to live in a time where that's all I could read. I'd probably be used to the words but nevertheless it would be torture for me now. Florence was scared a lot in this story and all you did was feel bad for her and her situation. She's an orphan, she had to go live in a not so pleasant orphanage, and now a ghost is trying to make her do things she doesn't want to. She's supposed to look a lot like Sophia and I initially thought the story was about Sophia finding a way to take over her body. I think that sounds like a fun read but alas it didn't go that way.

Her aunt was a real pain on my behind. She's one those characters that if you could you would take a swing at her. Nothing was ever enough for her. I'm sure she has wrinkles from all that frowning... Her uncle was a very nice guy and I'm happy that Florence was able to at least have someone who didn't detest her. I would be thinking too if I was her if it was really better at the orphanage than this crummy old place. I mean if I could read books all day I would be as happy as can be but I can't deal with people like her aunt. I don't deal with witchiness.

At times I did like the story and where it was going. I was anxious to meet her cousin, James, already. She was a very curious girl and that could lead to many great discovers or troubles for our narrator which it did. She was a great character but the book wasn't really spooky. It was a little bit scary for the sake of Florence but it was more depressing than scary for me. And it's not Florence's situation either. It was really the very end that just made me think this book is way too sad to read if you are a child. I could have seen it going a much different path but it ended up being just an okay book for me at the end.