Mary Downing Hahn - Fantastic Fictions

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
Genres: Ghosts, Mystery
Intended Age Group: Middle Grade
Publisher: Sandpiper/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-547-07645-4
Rating: 2/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

Just before summer begins, thirteen-year-old Ali finds an old photograph. She recognizes the two children. One’s her mother, the other her aunt Dulcie…but who is the third person, the one who’s been torn out of the picture? Ali will have two months to figure it out, since she’s spending the summer with her aunt and her cousin in the same house her mom and aunt used to visit when they were kids.
Then Ali meets Sissy. Sissy is mean, spiteful, and determined to ruin Ali’s summer. Sissy also has a secret. Could it have something to do with the old photo? Ali is dying to find out. Though, if she’s not careful, that’s exactly what might happen to her – die, that is.

Personal & Info

I picked this up cheap with a few other spooky books. This is the last of those for me to review. My edition appears to be older than the ones currently available in stores, so the links lead to the current available edition.

Characters

Ali is the main character.

Dulcie is Ali’s aunt. She’s an artist, specifically a painter.

Claire is Ali’s mother. She seems to have a lot of problems. She’s sensitive emotionally, and for some reason overly protective of her daughter to the point Dulcie says Claire owns Ali.

Emma is Dulcie’s daughter, and Ali’s cousin. She’s about four.

Pete is Ali’s dad. He seems to be the reasonable parent. When Claire is overprotective, Pete advocates on Ali’s behalf.

Sissy, the girl they meet at the lake, is mean and temperamental. I think they said she appears to be nine or ten, but small for her age.

Story & Thoughts

I generally don’t like stories with blatantly mean people in them. This book, and Wait Till Helen Comes, which is by the same author, are both like that, though this one isn’t as bad. This one is tolerable in comparison, but there are other issues.

The story is too bland for me. There is no blatant haunting danger. It’s more manipulation and bullying than anything. Granted, it’s not a bad story. It’s just not for me.

I hate how Dulcie and Emma act throughout. Emma’s behavior makes sense due to her age and lonely upbringing, but Dulcie has no excuse. Dulcie seems straight up unreasonable in some parts. Like, yeah, it’s Ali’s fault that Emma sneaks out the window during nap time because she wasn’t watching her, because that makes sense (This is sarcasm). What’s she supposed to do, sit in Emma’s room with her for every nap and bed time? At some point the child is to blame.

If you don’t like your ghost stories to be scary, and want something a little more mysterious, maybe check this out. Nobody dies. The ghost doesn’t blatantly try to murder anyone. It’s about finding the truth so the ghost can rest.

Description from the Book

Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their younger stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she’s made Molly and Michael’s life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a cemetery in the backyard. If that’s not bad enough, Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen and warning Molly and Michael that Helen is coming for them. Molly feels certain Heather is in some kind of danger, but every time she tries to help, Heather twists things around to get her into trouble. It seems as if things can’t get any worse.
But they do – when Helen comes.

Characters

Molly is the main character. Everyone seems to invalidate her all the time.

Michael, Molly’s brother, seems to only care about science and logic.

Heather is the step-sister. She’s seven, and her mother died in a fire when she was three.

Dave is the step-dad, and apparently believes everything Heather says.

Jean is the mom. She seems more reasonable than Dave.

Story & Thoughts

This is a good book, but I will not be keeping it for my collection. Heather ruins the whole thing for me. She is so insufferable, no amount of warm hearted happy endings in the world can make up for it.

Throughout the entire book, Heather is a bratty nuisance. She lies ALL the time. Her dad is wrapped around her finger and believes anything she says. Jean gives her way too much leeway, but at least she believes Molly and Michael sometimes. Overall, the parenting in this book is horrendous. I think most of the problems could be avoided if the parents put in more time and effort.

It does have some good going for it. It has some traditional ghost story aspects. There’s a detective segment where the kids go to the library to learn about the ghost, and they talk to a few people about strange occurrences. The story itself is enjoyable if you can tolerate Heather as an insufferable character.

There’s a map at the front of the book that shows the property. I wasn’t expecting that, but it’s kind of nice to have. However, I noticed the map shows four bedrooms. If the parents share a room, that leaves three for the kids, so why do the girls need to share? That doesn’t make sense to me.