* I got this for review*

I am not a big horror person but this was a super cute and fun read It def gave me prefect fall vibes and it remnded me a lot of are your afraid of the dark from when i was youngr.I also liked the small town vibes and that remidned me of halloween town or gilmore girls vibes. I really liked how this story also tackled common middle school issues like friendship drama!! I will def check out more books in this series and pass it on to my students ( )

* I got this for review*

I am not a big horror person but this was a super cute and fun read It def gave me prefect fall vibes and it remnded me a lot of are your afraid of the dark from when i was youngr.I also liked the small town vibes and that remidned me of halloween town or gilmore girls vibes. I really liked how this story also tackled common middle school issues like friendship drama!! I will def check out more books in this series and pass it on to my students ( )

A spooktastic story about growing up as a group and adapting to everyone changing in different ways.

Blurb:
Meet Whisper, Frannie, Sophie, Gemma, and Zuzu, five friends from Misery Falls, Oregon. The town is abuzz as the 100th anniversary of the electrocution of Misery Falls’ most infamous killer, Silas Hoke, approaches. When a mysterious text message leads the girls to the cemetery—where Silas Hoke is buried!—life can’t get any creepier. Except, yes, it can thanks to the surprise storyteller who meets them at the cemetery, inspires the first-ever meeting of the Graveyard Girls, and sets the stage for a terrifying tale from Whisper that they’ll never forget.

The story of the Graveyard Girls was very nostalgic. Originally, I expected something more fantasy, but then I was pleasantly surprised that this book was about growing up with a friend group. I had a group of friends myself: we would have a lot of sleepovers, tell scary stories, and do some spooky dares on a cemetery. So, I really could see myself in these girls. Over the years, we grew apart and went in different directions. This book shows this development perfectly. Around the age of twelve, we start finding ourselves, who we are, what we like, what we want from life, etc. Sometimes, that means finding new friends or new ways of being friends. But it often also means saying goodbye to old friends. With everything else going on, navigating friendships during this time can be extremely difficult. But in the end, it can blossom into something that lasts forever. Whisper and her friends are right in the middle of this development. They are feeling the drift and are trying to hold on, but ultimately, they figure out that showing up for each other and adapting their friendship is what they need most to get through puberty. Thus, the Graveyard Girls are born.

I expected to be more scared, but seeing that this isn’t a fantasy but a contemporary middle-grade novel, this scariness felt real and perfectly suited for the story unfolding.

I’m excited to read book 2 next and can’t wait to see what the Graveyard Girls are up to next. ( )

The ghost of an executed murderer, spooky tales, and a spunky group of 5 girls mix steering through school drama with dangerous paranormal for a fun and chilling read.

Five best friends have formed a ghost-story club, which meets every few weeks so that they can share the scariest tales with each other. More or less. Add that it's time for the town's annual historical celebration of the brutal killer's, Silas Hoke, execution, and chills are guaranteed. That is until the friends receive a strange message, requesting them to meet at the graveyard. Now, the ghost stories are more real and dangerous than any of them had hoped.

Spooks and chills run high in these pages with enough leans to the dark-side to delight young, horror fans. There are some scarier moments with a step into brutality...after all, Silas Hoke was not a gentle murderer. Still, it's nothing more than the average reader at this intended level can handle. It does keep the tension high and holds enough surprises to keep those pages turning until the end. Even then, the ending leaves the reader wanting to know what will happen next. Luckily, there's more to come, since this is only the first in the series.

The tale reads smoothly as it switches between six points of view: each of the five friends and the mysterious ghost. Each chapter starts with the name of the character to help keep things from growing confusing, and this works quite well, especially since each one has their own interests and personality to keep them differentiated, anyway. It did take a few chapters to get a handle on each one, though, since there are also many side-characters involved. But once I got into the swing of things, it was actually helpful and engaging to approach the story from the various views. Plus, each of the five girls has other problems they are dealing with.

While the ghost, danger, and chills race the story forward, there's also quite a bit of school drama. Each girl has their own, very usual problems with family and friends. The ghost, while present from the very first chapter, seems to sit on the sidelines for the beginning half of the book before stepping up his game later on. But that doesn't hurt the tension. The individual problems of the girls not only builds each of their personalities but makes each one easier to connect with...and builds background for the story to let the chills sit even better later on. Those, who hate school drama, though, might find this aspect a bit much.

This is a fast-read with something happening on every page. It's very character driven and never lets a boring moment seep in. The balance of school drama with chills will probably entice a broad range of readers, especially since it does dive into creepy well. Especially the lower end of the middle grade audience will want to pick up this one to get ready for the spooky season. I received a DRC and enjoyed the tale quite a bit. ( )