The House that Whispers Blog Tour-Favorite Quotes & Review

Hi! Thank you to TBR & Beyond and Net Galley for the E-ARC

About The Book

Genre: Middle-Grade Contemporary
Publishing date: February 28th, 2023

Rep: Queer, Transgender

Synopsis:

From the author of The Best Liars in Riverview comes a subtle exploration of gender identity, family, and the personal ghosts that haunt us all, perfect for fans of Kyle Lukoff and Ashley Herring Blake.

Eleven-year-old Simon and his siblings, Talia and Rose, are staying the week at Nanaleen’s century-old house. This time, though, it’s not their usual summer vacation trip. In fact, everything’s different. It’s fall, not summer. Mom and Dad are staying behind to have a “talk.” And Nanaleen’s house smells weird, plus she keeps forgetting things. And these aren’t the only things getting under Simon’s skin: He’s the only one who knows that his name is Simon, and that he and him pronouns are starting to feel right. But he’s not ready to add to the changes that are already in motion in his family.

To make matters worse, Simon keeps hearing a scratching in the walls, and shadows are beginning to build in the corners. He can’t shake the feeling that something is deeply wrong…and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it—which means launching a ghost hunt, with or without his sisters’ help. When Simon discovers the hidden story of his great-aunt Brie, he realizes that Brie’s life might hold answers to some of his worries. Is Brie’s ghost haunting the old O’Hagan house? And will Simon’s search for ghosts turn up more secrets than he ever expected?

Favorite Quotes

With the shops all closed up, and the fog everywhere, it feels like the end of the world.

Usually, it smells like when Mom used to take us with her to the huge university library and I’d find the oldest books I could and stick my nose inside the pages.

She says I imagine things so hard, I make them true in my mind.

The Thing I do know is I like being Simon

We claimed every sing thing was evidence of ghosts. Nanaleen’s house is really old, so it’s easy to imagine ghosts haunting it.

Review

Rating: 4 stars

The first thing that stands out about The House that Whispers is the wonderful characters. Simon is the main character, and I enjoyed them as a character. I loved the sisters as well, and how much they cared about Simon. The grandmother was also a lot of fun to read about, and she was so funny.

At its core, The House That Whispers is a mystery. Simon finds an old photo, and this starts the journey of Simon and their sisters getting answers. This was also a story of finding yourself and the journey that young people go on when growing up. I enjoyed this story, it was fun, and it was also very heartwarming. This story had a happy ending and I was so happy with how the story ended.

Lin Thompson is a fantastic writer. I loved how the more fun scenes had a fun tone because you could tell the characters were having fun, and you could tell that Lin Thompson had a good time writing this story. The House That Whispers also has some very serious and heartwarming scenes, and these scenes were told with a tone that was heavier as the scenes needed it.

I recommend this book for fans of Middle-Grade. I really enjoyed the journey of this story and the characters.

About the Author

Lin Thompson (they/them) is a former children’s librarian, a Lambda Literary Fellow, and the author of two books for middle-grade readers: The Best Liars in Riverview (Little, Brown, 2022), which is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and received a starred review from Booklist, and The House That Whispers (Little, Brown, 2023). Lin grew up playing pretend games in the backyard and basement of their home in Kentucky. Now they get to write pretend stories in the backyard and basement of their home in Des Moines, IA, where they live with their wife and cat.

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