A slow burn of a YA ghost story, but one that certainly pays off! Just what I expected! My kids enjoyed me reading this one to them.

Lindsey Currie delivers again with a delightfully mysterious and scary tale. When a friend goes missing in a cemetary one night, Hazel and her older brother Den have to overcome their fears and unravel the mystery of what happen many years ago in this cemetary and how that relates to their missing friend.

I enjoyed reading Lindsay Currie before but I really struggled with this one. I even tried the audiobook after it was published. I couldn't connect with the main character. I'll definitely try Currie again but this one just wasn't for me.

A perfectly creepy book for middle grade! My three year old wouldn’t let me read this while he was in the room. 😂

When I received this book, my hope was that the inside would be as creepy as the outside, and it totally was. The kid on the cover is just as creepy on the page. The story is well-written, and the author did a great job on her characters, especially Den and Hazel. I will definitely be recommending this author to kiddos who come in looking for scary books.

Creepy enough, young readers will probably enjoy it (although it’s not as scary as the cover implies). Very similar storyline to Currie’s previous books.

I love Currie’s middle grade work and this was another great example. Spooky and atmospheric this was a great tale; friendship, loyalty and grief filled the pages and at times it was downright scary. I love the slow burn of a Currie ghost story and this was pretty immense.

For this to be a middle-grade book, it was a great book. I enjoy the characters and ghosts in this book. I have to say that if you want to start a kid on horror. This would be a great start.

This proved to be a pretty competent tween horror, as a girl determined to become a detective starts this particular case by checking what her older brother and his friends are getting up to in the town cemetery one night. Whatever it is, one of them doesn't get to come back… The story builds a team of her, the brother and her best friend to solve the case, and also naturally and nicely flowing is the creepiness – messages from beyond, threats, dangerous scenes not confined to the graveyard – they're all present and more than correct. I did think it might have been briefer, but it's not a laborious task to read when it's hitting all the right marks so well. A strong four stars.

I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. The downfall was that I requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before the book was archived. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it!

Lindsay Currie is my go-to author for middle grade horror! My students cannot get enough and It Found Us does not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.

This was a great, ghost story.

I love Lindsay Currie's writing, her stories are engaging and entertaining. I love that this story was based on the Hagenback-Wallace train collision, I learned so much, including that there was a circus company named Hagenback-Wallace.

Looking forward to reading Lindsay's next book, The Mystery of Locked Rooms due to be released Spring 2024.

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy of It Found Us by Lindsay Currie. This book was such a fun ride! The children in town gather to play hide and seek in the graveyard. However, when the game is done, one of the children is no where to be found. Hazel Woods loves sleuthing, but this could be more than she bargained for.

The book is steeped in Illinois history and hauntings. The characters come alive in the pages and adventure abounds. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves ghost stories with historical significance.

A lot of people who know me know I love reading with my teens. This was one of the books I read aloud with my younger daughter with me reading parts to her and her reading parts to me ... it was a fantastic seasonal read and we recommend getting your hands on this one if you know any middle graders who enjoy a spooky read. This one even has an author's note and a historic spark for the historical fiction fan in me!! But not just that, this story is creepy, clever and never predictable.
Hazel Wood, the MC is a 12yo with aspirations of being a true crime podcaster and sleuth. When she heard her older brother plan a nighttime hide and seek game at the local - potentially haunted - cemetery one night, she sneaks out right after him and they witness his very best friend disappear. The adults searching seem far of the mark, so Hazel and her brother enlist her best friend Maggie and start their own search. Something is very wrong at this cemetery, strange things start happening when they start searching. The kids and the worried adults feel real and relatable, real to today's world which made us feel very invested in the story. My 14yo daughter at times would want the next chapter to be read in the morning or cover her ears but beg me to read on. We were invested in what was happening to these kids and whether they would find their friend.
Humour balances the horror perfectly, so there were definitely times to catch our breath and laugh together.
We also enjoyed this author's last spooky read "The Girl In White" last year !

hazel loves solving mysteries. Which often gets her in trouble with her parents. Her mom calls it snooping. One night she follows her brother into the graveyard and sees kids playing hide and seek in the woods. One kid goes missing. After the police can't find anything Hazel decides she must find out what happened in secret. I enjoyed this book. I was a fun read and perfect for spooky season.

- Howling in the graveyard
- Fire-not-fire
- Voice in recording
- Message: foundu
- Smiley faces!
- Elephant statue

These are just a handful of clues that amateur sleuth Hazel Woods has managed to collect. One evening Hazel follows her brother into a local graveyard and spies on him and his friends as they play a nightly game of hide-and-seek. She is shocked when her brother's friend, Everett, soon vanishes without a trace sending the entire town on a frantic search for his whereabouts. Having solved a few cases herself, Hazel, with the help of her brother and bestie, set out to bravely piece together the clues that will hopefully help them crack this case wide open and bring Everett home.

I love Lindsay Currie's spooky MG stories!! They are the perfect mix of paranormal activity, good messages and an intriguing touch of local history. The cemetery setting added an extra touch of creepiness to this storyline along with all of the sinister ghostly encounters! There was a lovely underlining theme of cherishing your loved ones and understanding why parents can be overprotective of their kids. Being a fan of mysteries, I loved collecting and deciphering all of the clues along the way and piecing this story together!

This story is inspired by the Hagenbeck-Wallace train wreck of 1918. You can learn more about this tragic event in the author's notes. It led me to look up several pictures of Showmen's Rest.

A great middle school mystery. While playing hide and seek in the cemetery, friend Everette goes missing. Hazel has always loved to solve mysteries but her mother calls them snooping. The teens must sneak out to try and find their friend even when things get spooky. Hazel puts forth her best sleuthing skills with the help of her friends to try and find Everette.

I really did not know what I was getting into. With the main character being a 12-year old, girl detective, I was expecting a much more fun and lighthearted read, despite the creepy kid on the cover.

This book however, fully delivers on the spooky vibes. A perfect October read to get you in the Halloween spirit. This book would be great for tweens/teens looking for a little more spooky scary vibes than typically seen in Middle Grade books.

I would have loved a little more of the mystery aspect, as I didn’t feel like I had the chance to solve the mystery myself before all the clues were revealed at the end, but I also understand I am not the target audience for this book.

I am so glad that i started reading spooky middle grade books as an adult because maaaan, so I get creeped out! Lindsey Currie really has a way to combine everything we love about middle grade books and just adds a lot of her own flavor to her books. This is by far one of my favorites from her!

Let me just quickly come out from where I hid behind the covers. I’m not much for horror. Ghosts are okay, to some degree, but a child ghost that wants to play and grabs your feet from under the bed? NO THANK YOU! Luckily, super sleuth Hazel was there to help me put my fears aside and make me curious about what lies behind the whole thing. Hazel reminded me a lot of Nancy Drew. It was exciting to find all the different clues and piece them together.
I especially liked Hazel and Den’s sibling bonding during their journey to find Everett. Because you should never work alone when hunting a ghost on cursed cemeteries.
Figuring out that part of this book is based on a real-life disaster that happened 100 years ago made everything even more scary. Now, let me get back under my covers, reading my next spooky read.