I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she’s a senior at America’s most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she’s hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living—like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, buries herself in work. If Hattie just tries hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her.

But the mask starts slipping when Hattie’s assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, who’s just transferred to Northanger on—what else—a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are paired up for an investigative project on the school’s paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that the campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove it’s not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person who makes her want to believe in something—and someone—for the first time.

Short and Sweet Review

Hattie goes to Northanger Abbey which is allegedly one of the most haunted high schools in America, but Hattie isn’t a believer. After the death of her father, Hattie decided to do away with anything involving ghosts including believing in them. When new student Kit, who is a huge believer, and Hattie are paired to work on a project to investigate the paranormal activity around the school. Hattie and Kit come to an agreement that Kit can try to prove that the campus is haunted and she’ll try to prove that it’s not.

Hattie is our main character and after the death of her father she became a shell of her former self. She doesn’t like ghost or paranormal things anymore, she doesn’t let even her best friends get to close to her, and she feels like she has to be an over achiever to get her mom to be proud of her. Hattie does have a holier than thou attitude and it got exhausting at times to see her think that she was better or above other people, especially her sister Freddie. I think that the death of her dad affected everyone in the family and Hattie doesn’t see it that way and I don’t think she understands that her mom throwing herself into her work was her way of grieving. It does seem like Hattie’s mom is absent and that the kids are basically raising herself, but she just doesn’t know the right thing to do and assumes that working all the time is what she needed to do. Also Hattie’s mom also is the head of the school and she picks Hattie to show Kit around. Hattie and Kit don’t hit it off right away and that’s mainly because Hattie isn’t feeling it especially with how excited Kit is about ghosts. The more time Hattie spends with Kit the more she opens up and kind of reverts back to herself when she was willing to be open with people and her interests. Kit was good for Hattie in the way that he was able to push her to do more than just what she thought her mom expected of her. I will say this eventually led to the character growth that Hattie had. I do think the character growth and realization about things in her life came a little too late for me because it wasn’t until the last 40 pages that this happened. I do wish that there was more ghost hunting that went on in the book. The first half of the book was fast paced but when we got past the investigation part and more into Hattie’s life and why she is the way she is things slowed down a lot.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book, I didn’t know beforehand that it was a retelling. I do think I would have enjoyed this book more if Hattie had her character growth earlier on before the end of the book, and I wanted more ghost hunting to happen!