Move over Percy, Annabeth, and Grover! You have competition for my favorite MG fantasy trio. Cassidy, Jacob, and Lara are all so vivid and curious and loyal and brave in the face of their fears. It’s hard not to love them. Cassidy had me laughing out loud and Jacob’s observations constantly take me by surprise. 

 

I love this first installment of Cassidy’s world travels and ghost hunting. 

 

Cassidy is the kind of hero that readers of all ages will love. She is bravest when she’s fighting to protect her friends. She simultaneously feels so much older than and EXACTLY twelve-years old. She makes a lot of mistakes and those mistakes have consequences. Even mundane consequences like parents being so worried that they refuse to let you out of their sight. Which makes it hard to do your ghost-hunting job, especially when those parents don’t know that you can move between the world of the living and the dead. 

 

I shouldn’t have been surprised at the very real stakes that come into play at the end of City of Ghost (because this is Schwab), but I was. They snuck up on me underneath the banter and sarcasm and misadventures. In her showdown with the Red Raven, I watched Cassidy learn to be a different kind of brave. It was inspiring and exciting and made me want to be friends with her.