An 11-year-old girl with a tendency toward overreaction begins seeing ghosts in the spooky, spine-tingling middle-grade mystery The Last Resort by two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly (The First State of Being; Hello, Universe).
Lila Clement is starting seventh grade and struggling with her best friend trio: Lexi and Ava are calling her "childish," "immature," and a "drama queen." Lila is counting on having the summer to solidify their friendship before school starts, but her parents tell her that her estranged grandfather has died and the family needs to go to Ohio. Grandpa Clem ran the small Castle Hill Inn and has left it to her father, so the family will be away for a few weeks to attend the funeral and settle the estate. Lila feels flattened. The family stays at the inn as they struggle to mourn someone they barely knew, and Lila's life becomes distinctly more complicated when she starts seeing ghosts, including Grandpa Clem. She is a "high channel," Grandpa Clem tells her, and he shouldn't be here--"the portal didn't open." He must have been murdered, he tells Lila, and he needs her help.
The Last Resort, intended to be a digitally interactive title, is a fun classic haunted house story in which any ghost may be friend or foe. Ghosts are brought (back) to life through Naomi Ranquiz's brilliant black-and-white character sketches, reminiscent of Tim Burton and Disney's Haunted Mansion. QR codes embedded in the illustrations should allow readers to further explore Lila's world through their devices. [Interactive elements were not reviewed by Shelf Awareness.] First in a multi-authored series, The Last Resort is a delightfully frightful and absorbing mystery. --Kyla Paterno, freelance reviewer