Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford, 2017

Warning: this is the sequel to Greenglass House. Do not read ahead unless you're okay with major spoilers from the first book!

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on Goodreads 

Welcome back to the irresistible world of Greenglass House where thirteen-year-old Milo is, once again, spending the winter holidays stuck in a house full of strange guests who are not what they seem. There are fresh clues to uncover as friends old and new join in his search for a mysterious map and a famous smuggler’s lost haul.

(464 pages)

When I reviewed Greenglass House about three years ago,  I wrote that it was a cozy and nice read that I enjoyed, even when some of the plot twists were a tad creepy. Now that I'm here reviewing the second one, and have had quite a bit of time to process the first one, I want to start out by saying that the fact that Meddie is a ghost added a whole layer of ambiance and character to the story that really enhanced it as a whole.

Ghosts of Greenglass House exploits this a bit with its title, I think, since while there are ghosts in Ghosts in Greenglass House that is just one storyline among many. throughout the book. I don't mind too much, though, because it does match the quirky style of the book.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this book. There's just something really cozy about reading a 450-page thick book set in a rambling old mansion trapped full of secretive characters, you know? It's largely a character-driven book, rather than being plot-focused like most books I read, and I enjoyed coming along for the ride rather than just rushing toward a climax. The ambiance in these books is awesome.

I don't think it's quite as good as its prequel, though, so I should touch on the negatives. First, it took me quite a bit longer to care about the new guests this time around. I came to be very interested in a couple of them, but I got many of the rest mixed up in my head even through to the end, which kind of muddled the conclusion. There may have been just a few too many characters in the story this time around.

Also, I wrote in my review of Greenglass House that I really appreciated reading about Milo's experience struggling with his identity after being adopted from China by white parents as a baby. Ghosts of Greenglass House continues to deal with his adoption, but it does it in a very different way: basically, when it comes up several times throughout the book, it focuses on Milo's attempts to learn more about Chinese culture, his hurt feelings due to some missteps by his schoolteacher, and his annoyance that people always make assumptions or ask rude questions when they first meet him and see him with his parents. I do appreciate that these are all valid topics to cover, and as a white person I am the first to admit that this is not really my area, but I have to say that Milford's treatment of Milo's experience felt extremely preachy and kind of nit-picky. She basically just uses him to teach the audience how really small comments can still hurt people, which is a good point, but I also think that Milo's reaction to some minor comments seem way out of proportion to their intent.

I think my biggest gripe is with the way his parents handle things: rather than really taking him by the hand and helping him, they offer to talk about it once or twice and then completely abandon him with something that has obviously been really bothering him. I think they're meant to be good parents because they recognize that they are inexperienced in racial issues since they're white, but really: they are his parents. If something is hurting him, it's their job to either fix the situation or help him cope with it and move past it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading Ghosts of Greenglass House as a nice, lazy, relaxing read. It's a tad more convoluted than the first one, a tad less enjoyable, and in parts does feel like a rehash of its prequel, but Ghosts of Greenglass House was such a lovely read that it can afford to be a bit diminished and still be a very pleasurable read. If you read an enjoyed Greenglass House, then I recommend you give Ghosts of Greenglass House a try!

Greenglass House by Kate Milford, 2014

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on Goodreads 

A rambling old inn, a strange map, an attic packed with treasures, squabbling guests, theft, friendship, and an unusual haunting mark this smart middle grade mystery in the tradition of the Mysterious Benedict Society books and Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer series.
It's wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler's inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo's home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House-and themselves.

(384 pages)

I remember when this first came out last year, when everyone was talking about it. I thought it looked really good, and told myself I'd read it someday, and then promptly forgot about it. Two weeks ago I was reading through my Goodreads TBR list and thought to myself, "I should totally read this!"

And then I forgot again.

And then my mom went to the library without me, and she brought home one random book that she'd pulled off the MG bookshelves for me. And you know what book it was? This one. It was Greenglass House, the book I'd just forgotten about for the second time. Some coincidence, huh? Well, I'm glad things worked out for me to read Greenglass House, because it's definitely an interesting gem of a book.

It's got that cozy, closed-in feeling that only comes from a book set during a massive snow-storm. Then it's got all those layers of mysteries and hidden motives, which reminded me a lot of an Agatha Christie novel. Then there was a layer of history tied throughout the novel, tying it back to events from throughout the house's past, which was pretty cool.

The big reveals, on the whole, were pretty original and interesting (though maybe not completely believable), and I was completely shocked by the big twist at the end. At the same time I really liked it - and was way impressed with Milford for barely making me suspect anything! - and was kind of weirded out by it. I can't really say anything else about that without spoiling it, though. A few of the smaller reveals, the ones about the characters, did feel a little bit contrived, but I just took them with a grain of salt. It's the sort of book where you can just kind of roll with things, accepting everything that comes. Fact and fiction and fantasy all sort of blend together until you're picking through and figuring out what's real and what's lies - and what is and isn't possible inside the novel's universe.

I really liked that Milo was struggling with being adopted. Too often I read about orphans or foundlings or castaways; here I got the opportunity to read about a boy who has loving parents, and is really just struggling like any kid to find his place in the world. Reading the author's note in the end, it was pretty cool to read about how she and her husband are in the process of adopting a child from China. It's clear that Milford was using Greenglass House to depict the message she wants to send to her future son or daughter: that it's okay to wonder about your birth family, that it's natural to yearn for your own heritage, and that you can daydream about having a family tree that stretches back farther than one generation without being disloyal to your adoptive parents. If I was adopted, I would get a lot out of Greenglass House - though I might not like it very much. People don't usually like books that hit too close to home.

Do I recommend Greenglass House? I think so. It's a little strange, though, and I'm still not sure what I think about the plot-twist-which-I-cannot-reveal. It's kind of creepy, and changes the tone of the entire story in hindsight. The book's an odd little gem, though, and despite its flaws I'm glad I read it.

Also, now I really want to look up the game Odd Trails, which Meddy and Milo play throughout the game. Does anyone know if this is a real thing?

Teaser Tuesdays: Greenglass House by Kate Milford (Nov 24)

Okay, so for those of you who are new to this meme, here's how it works:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My current read is Greenglass House by Kate Milford.

A rambling old inn, a strange map, an attic packed with treasures, squabbling guests, theft, friendship, and an unusual haunting mark this smart middle grade mystery in the tradition of the Mysterious Benedict Society books and Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer series.
It's wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler's inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo's home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House-and themselves.

(384 pages)

Here's this week's teaser, from page 1:

There's a right way to do things and a wrong way, if you're going to run a hotel in a smugglers' town.

You shouldn't make it a habit to ask too many questions, for one thing. And you probably shouldn't be in it for the money. Smugglers are always going to be flush with cash as soon as they find a buyer for the eight cartons of fountain pen cartridges that write in illegal shades of green, but they never have money today. You should, if you are going to run a smugglers' hotel, get a big account book and assume that whatever you write in it, the reality is, you're going to get paid in fountain pen cartridges. If you're lucky. You could just as easily get paid with something even more useless. 

Let me know what you think of the book, and check back on Friday for my review!