Review – The Haunting of the Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Weinstein Books
Release Date: March 24, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1602862722
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Sunshine Girl series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Something freaky’s going on with Sunshine’s new house . . . there’s the chill that wraps itself around her bones, the giggling she can hear in the dead of night, and then the strange shadows that lurk in her photographs. But the more weird stuff that happens, the less her mom believes her. Sunshine’s always had a quirky affiliation with the past, but this time, history is getting much too close for comfort . . .
If there is something, or someone, haunting her house, what do they want? And what will they do if Sunshine can’t help them?
As things become more frightening and dangerous, and the giggles she hears turn to sobs and screams, Sunshine has no choice but to accept what she is, face the test before her and save her mother from a fate worse than death.”
I originally picked up this book at my son’s book fair because the cover was intriguing (I never did figure out how the cover relates to the actual story). In the end everything about this book was mediocre. The writing is technically correct but doesn’t have much style, the characters are okay but come across as a bit vanilla, and the story is very predictable.
This is a very quick and easy read (I read it in a couple hours). The book isn’t awful, it just isn’t anything special either. I truly doubt I will even remember this book in a few months.
Sunshine is an okay character but didn’t have a ton of personality (aside from her quirky vintage clothing which is talked about a lot). Nolan is an incredibly vanilla male lead; always perfectly supportive of Sunshine to the point of boringness…does the man have no opinions of his own?
The plot is also very tired. Sunshine has the special ability to see and interact with ghosts. She moves into a haunted house where she has to solve the mystery of the ghost who is haunting it in order to save her loved ones. The story starts getting a bit more interesting towards the end and then the book just stops.
Overall this an inoffensive and completely vanilla read. Everything about this book is mediocre and, while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t like it either. In fact by the end of the book I really had not a lot of opinion about it; it’s just very forgettable. I would tentatively recommend if you enjoy slightly creepy reads about a young girl who can sense ghosts and want something that’s quick and easy to read.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
