Ghoster Heights - Kelly Mellings

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Author: Kelly Mellings

Genre: Graphic Novel, Middle Grade fiction
Rating: 4 stars.

A sweet middle-grade graphic novel that covers some deep themes.

After losing all their possessions, Eight-year-old Ona and her father have been forced to move in with her paternal grandmother, whom she calls Baba – Ukrainian for grandma. One day, while rescuing one of grandma’s many cats from the boiler room of the building, Ona bumps into a ghost. Surprisingly, the ghost uses her virtual pet device to communicate with her and seems quite friendly. However, Ona soon discovers that her new friend “Haunty” isn’t the only spook in the building. There are many ghosts haunting the residents, and Ona has to figure out how to get rid of them.

I didn’t expect to be so surprised by what I assumed to be an ordinary ghost story. The depth in which it explored human emotions is quite unexpected for a middle-grade graphic novel. Of course, this direction was to my advantage as I enjoyed the themes of grief and of ‘letting go’ and how these were incorporated. If you pick this book wanting a scary horror story, you might be disappointed. There are a couple of “scary” scenes, but nothing major, and I doubt even those scenes would traumatise children because they are resolved so well.

Ona is a strong lead character, while Haunty is charming in its limited appearances. Baba also is a well-sketched and complicated character, who loves her son and her granddaughter but also wants her quality time and is very opinionated. Her recipe for ‘Perogi’ is included at the end of the book.

The illustrations are quite simple yet effective. I loved the portrayal of the various ghosts. The bright colours work wonderfully for the plot.

Why I am not going higher with my rating is that the book leaves certain things unexplained. The events in Ona’s past don’t come out clearly, and I am still confused about what happened to her mum. Many characters have a mini back-story of sorts, but this is tricky to get from the panels. The younger of the MG crowd might have trouble processing these. Some of the “ghosts” are present in locations where they don’t make sense.

All in all, loved the idea, liked the implementation. Definitely a nice graphic novel that offers thought-provoking content. If you go with the flow without asking too many “Whys”, you’ll enjoy it. The lesson it offers is worth more than the minor plot gaps it contains.

My thanks to Independent Publishers Group, WONDERBOUND, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Ghoster Heights”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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