April 15, 2021
Beatrice "Beet" MacNeill can see ghosts--but it's more than just spirits that have been haunting the small coastal town of Skinner Harbour. When Beet's cousin Gerry comes to her soaking wet on the night in 1949 when his son, Joseph, is being born, he's surrounded by the smell of roses and playing a ghostly melody on his fiddle. Beet realizes he's dead. She has heard many stories about the supernatural--her friend Jeannine is obsessed with them--but it wasn't until that night that Beet started believing them herself. Something strange is happening on Prince Edward Island. Old Sarah Campbell, Gerry's estranged mother, dies about a year later, and her beautiful and eerie niece, Marina Shaw, comes to town, putting baby Joseph and his mother in grave danger. When Marina tries to take Joseph away to live with her in Massachusetts, Beet and Jeannine work together with their friends and the local librarian to try to save both him and the island from Marina's sinister powers, the deadly pull of the water, and a legendary creature of the sea. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and suspenseful tale infused with Scottish immigrants' folklore. With storylines taking place in multiple decades spanning the 19th and 20th centuries and narration from various characters' points of view, the plot can occasionally be confusing to follow, but readers will be drawn in by the haunting atmosphere. Characters are cued as White. A captivating historical ghost story. (author's note) (Paranormal. 12-16)
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May 10, 2021
In this leisurely paced narrative, Beatrice “Beet” MacNeill, 15, slowly begins to suspect that her Prince Edward Island community is being haunted by a sinister supernatural force after her cousin Gerry’s ghost appears to her upon his tragic drowning in 1949. A year later, following Gerry’s mother’s death, her elegant niece Marina Shaw comes to town, promptly taking a particular interest in Gerry’s son, Baby Joseph. Suspecting there’s more to Marina than meets the eye, Beet and her best friend Jeannine investigate, uncovering a strange pattern of drownings stretching back over a century amid sightings of a legendary kelpie. Beet’s first-person perspective proves immersive (“Lorsh, did Gerry turn red, seeing her! Made me laugh to kill myself”). Drawing upon maritime myth and Scottish folklore to weave an eerie story filled with magic and music, Hansen intertwines Beet’s narrative with historical flashbacks as the mystery unfolds. There’s a gentle subtlety to this atmospheric debut, with the ocean becoming a character of its own alongside presumed-white characters. Ages 12–up. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger.