Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
Genres: Ghosts, Horror
Intended Age Group: Middle Grade
Publisher: Sandpiper/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-547-02864-4
Rating: 3.5/5
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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.
Personal & Info
I found this, and a few other short spooky stories cheap. It’s October, so I figure it’s a good time to read them. I actually bought this twice by mistake, because I forgot I grabbed it already, and the store had a second copy. Not a big deal, they were about a dollar a piece.
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.