BUDDY’S HAUNTING is a middle grade mystery, horror novel.
Twelve-year-old Buddy knows three things being in a military family: every few years they move, his teenage sister is annoying no matter where they go, and there is no point making friends. He’s quite happy making the bedroom cupboard, of which ever house they live in, his private sanctuary and this new house will be no different.
Only this house is different. First of all, the house has windows for eyes and Buddy is sure they watch him. Secondly, his bedroom cupboard is no ordinary cupboard because behind a tiny door is a whole room he can hide out in and make his own and not have to think about the horrible word he waits for every day. Thirdly, and most importantly, is the note Buddy finds in the letterbox which says: Your house is haunted.
Buddy is some parts excited and some parts scared about the note, but he’s determined to find out if his house is haunted and (if the ghost is friendly) maybe make a new friend after all. Only, when Buddy hears the horrible word deployed and knows his mum will leave him again, suddenly ghosts don’t seem that important. That is until the girl from next-door, Malak, climbs through his window, won’t stop talking, and insists that ghosts are the perfect anecdote to forget the horrible word and what it means.
Buddy may not be looking for real-life friends, but he’ll have no choice with Malak taking up residence in his cupboard. But the more he hangs out with her the more he realises that maybe Malak has a secret of her own, and ghosts might not be the only thing he discovers.
Paula Gleeson 