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After losing her home in the Rouslville flood Judy Bolton is excited to be moving into her new home in Farringdon. The home was offered to the Bolton family for free due to the fact that the house is considered haunted. A former tenant, gangster Vine Thompson, had been shot and killed in the house and people claim her spirit now haunts it. Aspiring renters and local thrill seeking teenagers all claim they have seen a ghost waving it's arms in the attic window as well as heard Vine Thompson's voice calling out. Vine's son also was allegedly seen going into the house but never exiting. Judy, along with her reporter brother are excited to solve this mystery.
Judy hopes that acclaim from solving the mystery will help her earn the friendship of Lorraine Lee. Lorraine is one of Lois Farringdon's best friends and as Judy and Lois have become close, and sealed their friendship with a ruby friendship ring, Judy thinks it only right that her and Lorraine have a friendship too. Problem is Lorraine is extremely snobby and takes a disliking to almost everyone, Judy included. Judy hopes that her upcoming Halloween birthday party and finding the Lee family's stolen jewels, which includes a friendship ring exactly like Judy's, will guarantee her that friendship.
Judy's life soon splits into two, her unhappy life at school where the other girls question her morals and soon accuse her of having acquired Lorraine's stolen friendship ring. And her happier life at home where she spends evenings exploring the haunted attic with her brother, Horace, and her friends Peter and Irene.
As Halloween arrives Judy and Horace have solved the mystery of the alleged hauntings and host a successful Halloween party where all is reveled, including the parentage of Peter which had remained a mystery to him all his life.
I planned on doing a long summary of this book but I forgot how involved Sutton plots are. I will have to remember to take notes as I read next time.
- I do not understand why everyone tolerates Lorraine's behavior. I think Lois' pledge to remain best friends with Lorraine, simply because the girls' mothers were best friends, is silly. If Lois and Lorraine really were best friends than Lois should be able to tell Lorraine how disgusting her behavior is and to stop it.
- I like Irene in this book (something that I can not say for later books) and I enjoy the concept of the mill girls who are all down-to-earth and friendly. Irene is such a fascinating character, especially when being compared to the wealthy characters. She's a teenager girl who seems to be the sole financial supporter of her household which includes just her disabled father and, in this book, a no-good boarder. She works at the silk mill during the day and attends the mill's night school with her co-workers.
- I enjoyed Judy and Horace's relationship in this book. Horace is a really nice brother, always helping Judy and wanting to protect her but not in an overbearing way. I liked the scene where Judy screams out in the night and Horace runs over to check on her. She says she's fine but he waits in her room for 10 more minutes to make sure everything is ok before going back to bed. I thought that was really sweet. I like that they don't always get along perfectly either. I think their relationship is very realistic for siblings.
- I didn't like the way Judy treated The Ghost, which is a cat Horace finds. He essentially gives it to Judy but Judy does not want it because it is half starved, dirty, and doesn't go with her room's color scheme. I also did not like how Judy waits to feed the starving cat until after it is bathed.
- I also did not like how Judy seemed to take a casual attitude towards the mystery. At one point the attic door, which is located in her bedroom ceiling, begins to open in the night but even that doesn't light a fire under her to take things seriously. At the end of the book we find out someone has been coming and going from the attic but none of the family seem to find this disturbing. Even after hearing mournful cries in the attic, which Judy finds pitiful instead of frightening, she does not rush to investigate. I find this off-putting, especially considering the sounds were the cries of a starving cat who was trapped in an attic with a dead pet bird. This greatly upset me too, the fact that no one really seems to care that a poor pet bird was trapped in it's cage in an attic and starved to death. The mysterious voice was suppose to be intriguing but I just found it terribly sad that so many people had heard this voice and ran from it while it was essentially the bird calling out to the people for help, and their lack of help resulted in it's death. Even more I am disgusted that Horace carries around and handles the corpse of the bird which had been dead for months, it's body parts literally fall off while he displays the bird to the party-goers.
- I think the mystery involving Peter's parents is a little unnecessary and at times it felt forced. Maybe it was forced as Sutton needed to get that into the story to set up for the next book's plot. I also dislike how Peter's father just happens to be Vine's step-son and therefore Peter's blood is not tainted by criminal blood. It seems so outdated and old fashioned. Like who cares if Peter's grandmother was a criminal, that doesn't mean he is and the belief that it should effect his social standing is ridiculous. I wish he was truly Vine's grandson as I find Vine Thompson to be such a fascinating character which is saying something since she never actually appears in any of these books since she has already passed.
- One thing I love about this series is the way it progresses the same as real life. Some scenes can feel a little sentimental because I know the changes that happen in the future. For example the scene of Judy watching Irene play piano for her father in the living room while I know in the future he passes and Irene moves away and becomes a famous radio singer. Or the scene at the beginning where Judy is packing to move out of her grandparent's house and waving goodbye to them from the car while I know in the future they both pass and Judy and Peter make their home there. As silly as it may sound it really makes me appreciate these scenes the same way you appreciate moments in your life because you know they wont last forever.
Overall I enjoyed this book. In my opinion the Judy Bolton series is above and beyond any other girls series ever written. The plots are always so detailed and can take you down a twisting road but always remain so easy to keep up with and never get confusing.
I've been in a reading slump for a long time thanks to the Barbara Ann series or as I like the call it, the four most boring books ever written. But thankfully this book really helped me with that and I got it read in two days. I'm very excited to continue the series and I will be re-reading the third book, The Invisible Chimes, next. Honey is one of my favorite characters and so I'm excited for her to come into the series.
