28 Fairfax Lane

Imbued with themes of horror, paranormal mystery, and detective work, this thrilling story takes place in New Orleans. It follows a Texan sorority freshman who seeks to uncover the mysteries surrounding the old sorority house and why it has such a dark and gloomy reputation. Molly Deavers joins the Alpha Ti Sigma sorority in the haunted Dupount Manor. She gets spooked when she receives a Ouija board message and has an unusual palmistry session. Suddenly, the sorority house’s dark reputation skyrockets, as everyone gets haunted by scary visions, jump scares, injurious accidents, and suicides, therefore intensifying security presence and making some manor staff members call it quits. While a formal investigation is ongoing, Molly’s determination to unravel the mysteries of the manor's former owners leads to an unexpected revelation, and when a paranormal team shows up, things get even more intense. Will Molly and the detective team find out the truth? Readers are yet to find out in this sensational book! A notable aspect in this story is the author’s penchant for macabre and thrilleresque themes. At first read, the depiction of teenage girls in a haunted house reminds me a bit of the series Haunted Hathaways, except for the lack of comedy and more gothic plots in this book. The content is pretty engaging, the illustrations are neat, and the addition of gumbo meals in the story really shows how much the author is attached to New Orleans. The characters are also pretty interesting. I like Molly and Detective Marvin Mann because both of them are interested in the Manor's history and solving its century-old paranormal mystery. Overall, I think it is a good book to read in preparation for Halloween. The story also sounds great for a horror series, like Goosebumps. However, I wonder why there are no paragraphs in this book. I can also notice that several names are at times typed with small letters at the beginning, and there are no spaces after commas. These make reading quite complicated and tedious and make me wonder if the author prepared this book in haste. I quite admire the book’s genre and content, but I think more must be done by the author to make the book more unputdownable. Other than the notable lack of paragraphs and grammatical lapses, I do not have any negative views or dislikes to offer about this book. A proper editing by the author will render this book excellently written. Nevertheless, its context and style are interesting, emotionally intense, and powerful; therefore, I give this book a 4-star rating. This book is recommended to young adult readers who love dark fiction. Readers should take note of the presence of profanity.