The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall

Book 51 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from August 11 - 14

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall

by Katie Alender

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2015

Delia's new house isn't just a house. Long ago, it was an insane asylum nicknamed "Hysteria Hall." However, many of the inmates were not insane, just defiant and strong willed. Kind of like Delia herself.

But the house still wants to keep "troubled" girls locked away. So, in the most horrifying way, Delia gets trapped.

And that's when she learns that the house is also haunted.

Ghost girls wander the halls in their old-fashioned nightgowns. A handsome ghost boy named Theo roamed the grounds. Delia finds that all the spirits are unsettled and full of dark secrets. The house, as well, harbors shocking truths within its walls - truths that only Delia can uncover, and that may set her free.

But she'll need to act quickly, before the house's power overtakes everything she loves.

My Opinion

3 stars

I'm not the demographic for this book but it kept my interest and I would recommend it for a younger crowd.  Because it's Juvenile Fiction or the younger side of YA there are some conveniences/coincidences to introduce some information but it's surprisingly dark too.  Not dark as in graphic or inappropriate for a young reader but there was a plot point that I thought for sure would be a "dream sequence" or somehow undone by the end of the book and it wasn't; their actions had consequences and long-term effects which was really interesting.

The line, "Mom never met a situation she couldn't kablooey into an awkward overshare." made me laugh because I've lived that situation many times from all sides...as the child of a blurter, as a parent that's been known to blurt things myself on occasion, and by having some kind of pull that makes strangers want to tell me their life story.

Quote from the Book

"OBSERVATIONS MADE AFTER THE FACT

 I hate you. And by the way, tell Janie I hate her, too.

 Let me tell you something.

 On a cold and loveless night, when the silver moonlight drinks the color from the earth and the grass tumbles in the wind like waves tossed on an endless, angry sea...

 That is not the kind of memory that keeps you warm."