The agony house / Cherie Priest ; illustrated by Tara O'Connor.

Title:

Author:

Priest, Cherie

Additional Author(s):

O'Connor, Tara,

ISBN:

9780545934299

054593429X

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Info:

New York :

Description:

256 pages : color illustrations ; 22 cm

Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Denise Farber, her mom, and her stepfather are moving back to New Orleans, into the Argonne house, which is over 150 years old, and really showing its age, but which her mother plans to turn into a bed-and-breakfast--but old houses have histories, and sometimes ghosts, and a mysterious old comic book that Denise finds in the attic may hold the answer to a crime and the terrifying things that keep happening in what she thinks of as the "Agony" house.

General Note:

"This book contains 50 interior comic illustrations in addition to the text"--Publisher.

Subject(s):

Ghost stories.

Haunted houses -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Fiction.

Murder -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Fiction.

Comic books, strips, etc. -- Fiction.

Detective and mystery stories.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Library 21c	Teen Book	PRIE	Teen Fiction	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Penrose Library	Teen Book	PRIE	Teen Fiction	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A haunted house, a killer ghost, and a long-lost comic come to life in another spectacular package of novel and comics from Cherie Priest, author of I Am Princess X . Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and step-dad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast. Nothing seems to work around the place, which doesn't seem too weird to Denise. The unexplained noises are a little more out of the ordinary, but again, nothing too unusual. But when floors collapse, deadly objects rain down, and she hears creepy voices, it's clear to Denise that something more sinister lurks hidden here.Answers may lie in an old comic book Denise finds concealed in the attic: the lost, final project of a famous artist who disappeared in the 1950s. Denise isn't budging from her new home, so she must unravel the mystery-on the pages and off-if she and her family are to survive...

Author Notes

Cherie Priest was born in Tampa, Florida on July 30, 1975. She received a B.A. from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee in 1998 and an M.A. in rhetoric/professional writing from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2002. She is the author of the Eden Moore series, The Clockwork Century series, and Borden Dispatches series. She won the PNBA Award and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for Boneshaker.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7-10-When 17-year-old Denise's parents move her to New Orleans, planning to fix up an old house and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast, accidents start occurring and Denise quickly realizes that the house is haunted. The classic haunted house story gets an update with a story line involving a 1950's era comic book featuring a female hero that is atypical for its time. Scenes from the comic book, which are sporadically interspersed into the narrative, add visual variety to the story and intensify the mood. Each small horror within the house builds to a large climax and a twist ending as Denise uses the comics to solve a mystery. Readers will empathize with Denise's financial troubles as she and her family struggle to pay for food when all their money goes into the house. The issue of gentrification, particularly in a Hurricane Katrina-affected New Orleans, is woven in, though at times didactically. Text messages (including some dated teen textspeak), emails, and ghost whispers are printed in blue in order to stand out and match the comics' color palette. VERDICT The format of this ghost story is inviting and while never truly horrifying, younger YA readers will be satisfied with the chills provided.-Carrie Shaurette, Dwight-Englewood School, NJ © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Following up on a successful collaboration with Kali Ciesemier in I Am Princess X (2016), Priest pairs with O'Connor to neatly weave together the history of comic books and contemporary concerns about gentrification into an eerie ghost story set in a ramshackle house that's as much a character as the people living in it. Denise, her mom, and her stepdad have just moved into a nearly destroyed, once-beautiful house in New Orleans, and almost right away, Denise starts noticing odd things. First, they're harmless, if creepy, but later, unexplained, dangerous accidents happen as the family renovates the house. But the comic book manuscript Denise finds carefully hidden in the attic (pages of which appear throughout the novel) is the key to the source of the poltergeists. Meanwhile, Denise's neighbors are uneasy about outsiders capitalizing on cheap property in New Orleans, and Priest does a great job of skillfully including the important conversations Denise and her family have with their new community. At its heart, though, this is a ghost story, and Priest excels at building palpable atmosphere: Denise's parents' anxiety about their shoestring budget, the sweltering New Orleans summer heat, the disrepair of the house (soggy plaster fell from the studs like wet cake), and the increasingly terrifying haunting. Dynamic characters and a surprising mystery round out this sharp, satisfying, and engrossingly spooky story.--Sarah Hunter Copyright 2018 Booklist