Middle Grade Horror Review: Mine by Delilah S. Dawson

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Reader Friends, kids these days don’t understand how good they have it. Mine by Delilah S. Dawson is legit scary!

CW: ghostly harm to children, very strained parental/child relationship, the dog is fine at the end

From the Publisher:

Lily Horne is a drama queen. It's helped her rise to stardom in the school play, but it's also landed her in trouble. Her parents warn her that Florida has to be different. It's a fresh start. No theatrics. But this time, the drama is coming for her.

The Hornes’ new house is awful. The pool is full of slime, the dock is rotten, and the swamp creeps closer every day. But worst of all, the house isn't empty . . . it's packed full of trash, memories, and, Lily begins to fear, the ghost of the girl who lived there before her.

And whatever is waiting in the shadows wants to come out to play.

Mine is extremely creepy and chilling. Lily and her parents have moved to swampy Florida, thousands of miles from her beloved Colorado, to live in a house that was too good of a deal to pass up. The reason it’s such a good price? The former tenant was a hoarder and the house is bursting at the seams with all of the trash and delivery boxes. Because the state of the house is so overwhelming, and the family’s storage container hasn’t shown up yet, the already tense relationship Lily has with her parents is at a near breaking point. We know something happened in Colorado that forced the family to move suddenly, and we’re led to believe Lily feels it’s her fault throughout the entire book. Lily’s dad starts his new job immediately and it’s up to Lily and her mom to clean out the mountains of trash and turn their disaster of a house into a home. So when creepy things start happening in the house, Lily’s parents have zero patience for her drama and insist it’s all in her head. Lily spends most of the story feeling ignored, hurt, and betrayed by her parents actions. Lily feels like a character that many kids will be able to relate with. She has to move unexpectedly, leave her friends behind, and finds herself alone and terrorized by a ghost that no one believes is there. Lily is also a smart and determined kid who knows she’s the only one who can save herself and she does.

If you have a middle grade reader who loves horror, this book is perfect. It’s chilling, atmospheric, and very creepy. If you’d like a copy of your own, you can find ordering information here:

As always, this post may contain affiliate links and I may earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions and mistakes are my own.