The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. Book 1) Kindle Edition

When I found this book, I was torn.On one hand, there was the fact that it was written by Jonathan Stroud, author of the Bartimaeus series (quite good, BTW). On the other, we have the label in the description telling us this book is intended for readers in grades three through seven. (Elsewhere, it says grades six through nine, but still.) It seems to me that for every Harry Potter, you have about a thousand middle grade books that, though I can easily see why they'd be enticing to kids, simply don't hold up to a discerning adult's eyeballs.But holy cow, people: we've got a Harry Potter.Now, before you all start shrieking at me because this book is nothing at all like Harry Potter, let me just say this and hope that I'm being quite clear: this book is really nothing at all like Harry Potter. Except maybe in the most superficial of ways. (Magical Britain, two boys and a girl...) What I meant was that this is a book that was no less delightful just because it was written with a younger reader in mind...and though it's rather darker than the first HP book, it still manages to introduce some of the same sort of literary magic that made me fall in love with Hogwarts.The Lockwood & Co. series is set in the "real world," with one major divergence: several decades ago, ghosts started appearing. Turns out that ghosts aren't benign, and to make things even worse, the only people who can sense them with any sort of reliability are kids. And those with the most psychic ability? They're on the front lines.The characters were quite well done, I thought, and so was the plot. Where this book really shines, though, is the setting--Stroud's land of malevolent spirits is rich and well-planned and masterfully painted. The descriptions of the ghosts and the dangers the characters faced were vivid, and though I didn't personally find the book frightening, precisely (though if you really are buying this for a child, you may want to make sure they have a strong constitution...or at least read it first yourself), I was sucked into this baleful world expertly enough that I could almost feel the chill the specters were emitting.I've already said this book reminds me a bit of Harry Potter, at least in the way it made me feel, but it also reminds me of John Bellairs's  The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt) . Again, not really in substance, in experience. I read HWACIIW as a kid--maybe 3rd grade?--and it was the book that turned me on to fantasy. I do recall finding that one a bit frightening, but far more important was how it opened me up to a world of magic. I can easily see the Screaming Staircase doing the same for a new generation of readers.Seriously, folks. If the description makes the book sound like it's up your alley, don't let the reading level scare you off. This grown-up will be reading the whole series, doubtless over and over, until my eyesight finally goes.

This is the first book in the series of Lockwood and Co.In a time when children are the only ones that can see and feel ghosts, and adults can't, come groups of ghost fighters in the heart of London and surrounding areas.Lucy has just joined Lockwood and George. They form a small group fighting all kinds of ghosts: specters, screamers, and more. Lucy can hear and feel the ghosts, Lockwood can see them and George, well George is a slob but he does a lot of the background history of the ghosts they go after.After burning down a house and putting their company in jeopardy, Lockwood takes on a case that could finish them for good. Lucy has taken something from the burned house and it may have something to do with the next case. Will Lockwood and Co. finish off the ghosts? Is there something lurking behind the object that someone wants and the ghost that inhabit it?I started this book while working in a school library and was so caught up in the story, I got my own copy to finish. It kept me on my toes and I had to finish the story when I had time to read. Jonathan Stroud has written an exciting ghost hunting book. I can't wait to get to the next one.

I was a big fan of Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus series when I was in (the Indian equivalent of) high school, so I’ve had his new Lockwood & Co. series on my wishlist for a while now. I’ve been reluctant to actually read it, though, because things I liked in school don’t always hold up when I read them now, and I didn’t want to tarnish my memories of Bartimaeus. My friend Sashank recently asked me to read and review the series on my blog, so I decided to take the plunge.The world of The Screaming Staircase is very much like our own, except that for the past fifty years, dangerous ghosts have been haunting the world at an alarmingly high rate, and only children have the psychic sensitivity needed to sense and combat them effectively. We follow Lucy Carlyle, a fourteen year old Agent from the country that moves to London and joins the small Lockwood & Co. company. After one of their ghost investigations goes horribly wrong, they are forced to take on one of the country’s most haunted homes.I read this book by flashlight at night during a power outage, and although it was fun in a terrifying kind of way, I don’t recommend it. I wouldn’t call the genre horror exactly – it’s supposed to be middle-grade, and it mostly focuses on the adventure, but there are some nail-bitingly creepy parts that Stroud really brings to life. I thought Lucy was a great protagonist, she’s earnest and vulnerable, she doesn’t take any crap from anyone but she’s not showy about it, either. Lockwood seems to be cut from similar cloth as Nathaniel in the Bartimaeus series, he’s self-possessed and precocious and you forget that he’s young until he does something ridiculous that makes you realize how young he is. I wanted to know more about George, but he seemed to get the short end of the stick (primarily because Lucy and Lockwood thrive on action, and George is the researcher they often ignore.)I wasn’t that excited by the plot itself. There wasn’t anything notably bad about it, but I just wasn’t drawn into it that much. I was willing to forgive that because it’s clearly setting up a larger world and mysteries to explore. Overall, I’m glad to report that instead of tarnishing my memories of Stroud’s previous works, reading The Screaming Staircase just made me want to reread them.

Después de algunos contratiempo logre leer el libro.Es tapa blanda, idioma ingles. Nos presenta la historia de un grupo de investigadores sobrenaturales, en este sólo se mensionan fantasmas, y algunos de los trabajos para los que son empleados.El personaje que narra la historia, en apariencia la protagonista, es un poco plano mientras que los otros dos son más interesantes, la historia no es mala, simplemente no logro engancharme.

This was a good start to a series, though a little slow at the outset. Flipping from the present to the past and then back again I almost lost my interest in reading as a worked through the first two parts of the book. However, the information learned was necessary to build an idea of these characters we were following and the world they lived in, so I can see why it was written this way.For being a YA book this was in some ways surprisingly adult. After all, as they search for ghosts they also seek out/learn the way the people died. These facts are not glazed over, going through stories of broken necks, terrified screams, slit throats......seems oddly adult. But in nit shying away from that the story stayed true to its thriller background, making this one of the best YA thrillers I've read this year.

This is a wonderful book. It's a great series to start your favourite pre-teen on.

-J'attendais ce livre avec impatience. J'adore la série des Bartiméus de l'auteur ( La trilogie des Bartiméus  + Bartiméus - L'Anneau de Salomon ), j'ai apprécié  Les Héros de la vallée , ainsi que les trois autres livres de l'auteur, écrits il y a plus longtemps, assez étranges, riche en atmosphère surnaturelle, inquiétante à la limite de l'angoissante ( The Last Siege , The Leap , Buried Fire ). J'étais ainsi curieuse de savoir ce que l'auteur nous avais concocté là, même si les histoires de fantômes ne sont pas particulièrement ma tasse de thé.Ma curiosité a été récompensée !Jonathan Stroud a manifestement regroupé dans cette nouvelle série tout ce qu'il aimait : les ambiances surnaturelles, la littérature jeunesse (yes !!! au lieu de vouloir jouer au grand auteur en passant à la "vraie" littérature, celle pour adultes of course - ben non je ne vise personne - J.S continue d'écrire pour la jeunesse, la vraiment jeune et la plus vieille) et le parfum british, qui change agréablement des romans américains, aussi passionnants que soient certains. L'ensemble est très travaillé, l'auteur a visiblement pris le temps de tout bien peaufiner, ça fait plaisir...J'ai tout adoré de ce livre : le style, brillant comme toujours, l'histoire, très bien menée et cohérente, le monde et sa variante type uchronie british, la mise en scène soignée, les petits-détails-qui-font-tout, les personnages, à la fois typés et nuancés, l'ambiance, mi-sérieuse mi-désinvolte, très légèrement marquée de tristesse, et enfin la tension montante, qui finit sur une dernière scène d'horreur à la sauce fantôme vraiment très réussie !Le contexte est un peu flou : le tournant uchronique, une épidémie brutale de fantômes en Grande-Bretagne (et uniquement là semble-t-il), a eu lieu il y a une cinquantaine d'années (tournant appelée sobrement The Problem, avec une bonne dose d'humour anglais !), mais le monde où évoluent les personnages ne connait pas l'informatique, nous devons ainsi être dans les années 80. L'ambiance fait un peu plus vintage, sans doute par le jeu des contraintes créées par ce danger permanent : couvre-feu, lumières anti-fantômes à tous coins de rues, brassées de lavande, vendeurs de sel et de limaille de fer, patrouilles de nuit, etc.On ne connait pas grand chose des fantômes finalement, principalement les grands axes découverts par un célébrissime duo de choc, de l'époque initiale. Mais ils peuvent tout de même être définitivement refoulés par des techniques dangereuses à mettre en oeuvre - les accidents mortels ne sont pas rares.Cette nouvelle vague d'apparitions n'a en effet vraiment rien d'une partie de plaisir ; les fantômes, outre les accidents qu'ils peuvent causer par leurs manifestations, sont dangereux par contact : leur toucher est mortel sans traitement médical rapide (sorte de nécrose bleue avec gonflement spectaculaire).Personne ne sait pourquoi les fantômes, connus de tout temps mais rares, sont devenues si nombreux, survenant un peu partout - attachés à leur "source", un objet, leurs restes, ou même un emplacement significatif.Enfin, si les adultes peuvent ressentir les fantômes (malaise, angoisse, dépression) seuls certains enfants peuvent les percevoir, par la vue, l'ouïe, ou le toucher d'objets, de matériaux.Ainsi, dans le monde imaginé par l'auteur, les enfants sont-ils les seuls à pouvoir combattre ces dangers, si réels et si mortels. Cet aspect, si souvent emprunté par les auteurs jeunesse, d'enfants réduits à un travail d'adultes, parfois exploités par ceux-ci et parfois gaillardement autonomes, est souvent bancal à mes yeux, artificiel, tiré par les cheveux. Ici le contexte le justifie pleinement, la cohérence est totale, pour un agrément maximum de lecture.La construction du livre agréable à suivre, avec une immersion immédiate, suivi d'une mise au point permettant de comprendre la personnalité de l'héroïne, Lucy (roman écrit à la première personne du singulier, J.S aime ses héroïnes !) et d'assister à la rencontre entre Lucy, Lockwood et George, l'étrange trio de l'agence Lockwood.Le flash-back (sans souffrance aucune, ne craignez rien, c'est court et très bien fait, car permet de répondre à des questions soulevées par l'intro) permet de comprendre comment Lucy est arrivée à quitter sa campagne natale, après une enfance typique, celle des enfants particulièrement doués, embrigadés très jeunes par les agences, d'abord pour les rondes de nuit puis, pour les plus brillants, pour les missions visant à anéantir les fantômes.Le récit reprend ensuite tambour battant, sans mollir, sans précipitation non plus ; c'est intelligent, drôle et distrayant. Les personnages sont intéressants, taillés dans des stéréotypes très vite nuancés, et les rapports entre les trois adolescents sont vraiment réussis, entre complicité, pinailleries, estime, blagues en tous genres et affrontements.Le récit est présenté comme une aventure, qui se clôture très bien, mais avec une petite entourloupe finale malicieuse qui annonce bien l'enjeu du tome suivant... que je viens de lire très récemment, et qui a tenu toute ses promesses. La trilogie des BartiméusBartiméus - L'Anneau de SalomonLes Héros de la valléeThe Last SiegeThe LeapBuried Fire

Fun story. Fantasy Young Adult, very Harry Potterish. Decent enough, but not as good as the Bartimaeus books from the same author. Not as funny, but has its moments. Great as a light, inbetween read.