“A ghost family has moved next door to me…”
Twelve-year-old Hannah Fairchild is having a lonely summer in the small town of Greenwood Falls. Her six-year-old twin brothers, Bill and Herb, are causing her grief and she has been wrestling with nightmares about her house burning down. Unfortunately, her parents didn’t have the money to send her to summer camp like her friend Janey Pace. Strangely enough, Hannah has been writing to Janey all summer but with no response.
One day, Hannah goes out for a bike ride and bumps into a red-haired, freckle-faced boy named Danny Anderson who has moved into the abandoned house next door. His skin seems to shimmer in the sunlight. She starts to follow him around and spy on him, but Danny just seems to shrug her off at every turn. They are both twelve years old and go to the same school, yet neither of them seem to know any of the same kids in their class. Is Danny telling the truth? Hannah starts to suspect something might be off with him, maybe he might actually be a ghost (naturally, her parents don’t believe any of this). At the same time, Hannah starts seeing a mysterious shadowy figure with dark red eyes looming over her, ominously calling out her name.
After a number of minor jump scares and plot twists in the story, including a misadventure with a pair of spoiled doofuses named Alan Miller and Fred Drakes at the house of Mr. Chesney (the city’s postmaster), Hannah finally confronts Danny and accuses him of being a ghost. In confusion, the two of them argue before Danny tries to push Hannah down but his hand shockingly goes right through her skin! Danny runs away in terror as Hannah realizes: “Danny’s not the ghost… I finally know the truth. Danny’s not the ghost. I am!” Perhaps this explains why she says is color blind at the beginning of the book. In fact, Hannah learns that she and her whole family were actually killed in a house fire five years ago, and their house has remained abandoned ever since.
Hannah ventures out to find Danny only to discover he, Alan, and Fred have snuck into Mr. Chesney’s house again and they have somewhat accidentally started a fire while Danny is still trapped inside. Hannah rushes into the house to rescue him and there she is confronted by the same mysterious shadow figure which finally lifts its hood and reveals itself to be Danny’s own ghost, patiently waiting for Danny’s death. The ghost tells Hannah to leave and warns her of grave consequences. But Hannah defies the ghost and rescues Danny instead, leaving his ghost to be destroyed in the house fire. As the ambulance arrives, Hannah watches Danny try to explain what happened, but nobody believes him since they only remember Hannah as the girl who died in a housefire five years ago. Hannah tries to call out to Danny, but she is already fading beyond the veil. Her ghostly parents call out to her, beckoning her to return from the land of the living –they inform her that she was merely brought back to earth to save Danny for a brief time. She cries out as she disappears, hoping Danny will never forget her (and here the book ends on a somber, ambiguous note as we wonder if Danny can actually hear Hannah as she departs this world).
“Time floats in and out when you’re a ghost, Hanna realized. That’s why the summer has seemed so short and so endless at the same time” (101).
The Ghost Next Door is a surprisingly powerful installment in the Goosebumps canon –there are hardly any silly jokes or gags in this one. And while the plot twist that Hannah is actually a ghost is fairly obvious from the beginning (cue the Sixth Sense allusions), and it’s a bit flimsy that Hannah somehow conveniently ‘forgot’ she was a ghost for most of the novel, this is still a worthy installment. Despite having a plot that is mostly simple and threadbare, the final act of this book actually packs a weighty gut punch, particularly for a children’s story. It comes recommended from me, especially if you are looking for a less goofy Goosebumps read.
Stine, R.L. The Ghost Next Door. Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY, 1993.
Love this review ❤️