Thank you to netgalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Press for allowing me access to this book. The cover is what pulled me in and the story kept me there.

It Happened to Anna is middle grade chiller by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Poor Sadie Rivera has been stalked by a jealous ghost for as long as she can remember. After the ghost kills Sophie’s best friend Anna, her father moves them to his small hometown in Idaho, but the ghost only follows, creating havoc whenever Sophie attempts to build relationships.

Overwhelmed with guilt and loneliness, Sadie rejects all attempts at friendships by well meaning classmates…until she meets a super cool girl named Mal.

While the paranormal activity dies down with Mal in the picture, Sadie has a new problem. Mal, living up to her name, loves to terrify the kids at school with increasingly grotesque pranks and she is dragging poor Sadie along with her.

For middle grade readers who love to be freaked out and creeped out, this is a captivating tale of jealousy and revenge.

*4.5 Stars*

Sadie has been haunted her entire life. Her ghost doesn't want her to get close to anyone and even killed her best friend Anna. But Sadie can't tell anyone until she does. But is that friendship really what she wants?

I really liked this book. It was a very fast read that touched on very interesting subjects. I like how it was horror but also spoke of everyday life stuff. I liked the take on friendship and how it's not always what we signed up for. I found Sadie to be a very interesting main character and I loved getting to know her throughout this book. I did see the main twist coming a mile away but I didn't mind. I felt for Sadie from beginning to end and would definitely recommend this to a lot of people, no matter their age.

Sadie has been plagued by a jealous, vengeful ghost since she was a young child in Arizona. Her mother left years ago, and she and her father have moved back to his hometown in Idaho after the ghost caused the death of her best friend, Anna. Now, she is treading carefully, keeping to herself, and not making the mistake of befriending anyone else and incurring the ghost's wrath. When Charlotte, and exuberant graphic novel fan, talks to her, the lights flicker menacingly, and when Sadie attends the graphic novel club and talks to some of the members, further electric problems cause the club to let out early. While she's waiting for her father, she is approached by Mal, a waif like student with white blonde hair. Mal won't give up talking to her, so Sadie finally tells her the truth about the ghost... and Mal believes her. Not only that, but talking to Mal doesn't seem to rile up any evil forces. Relieved to finally have a friend, Sadie goes along with any activity Mal wants to do, like hanging out in the cemetery. Mal has an odd life; her overprotective, hard working parents insist that a nanny picks her up for lunch, she's not allowed to participate in any groups, but she is given the freedome to hang out after school. When Mal wants to pull some pranks like locking Ryder in the bathroom and shutting off the lights, dumping red Kool Aid "blood" on Marty's locker, or filling a back pack with worms and dirt, Sadie goes along with it even though the pranks make her uncomfortable. Mal even coerces Sadie into scratching an "M" into her ankle while Mal scratches an "S" into her own. When Mal wants to catch a rat and put it in Kelsey's desk (Sadie suspects that Mal knows Kelsey has been nice to her), Sadie helps, but regrets it at the last minute and lets the teacher know before Kelsey opens her desk. Sadie is so distraught that she stays home from school for several days, and when she returns, she finds out that Kelsey's cat was killed and left on the family's porch. When she talks to Mal, she denies any involvement and is nicer to Sadie. Sadie has been having nightmares about Anna and other students in distress, so she's relieved that her one friendship is still strong. When Mal wants to go out at midnight to an abandoned well, this doesn't seem like a great plan, and when Sadie tries to back out because she has also been invited to Charlotte's birthday party, Mal is not happy but says it's okay. When Sadie's father gets a call that Charlotte is missing, Sadie knows exactly where Charlotte is. She runs away, and finds Mal and Charlotte at the well. Mal seems intent on killing Charlotte, but Sadie manages to rescue her. Creepy secrets emerge, and Sadie, who has suffered for years, resigns herself to her own death. Will the ghost be victorious after all?
Strengths: Mejia does an excellent job at dialing right in to middle grade fears. What's worse than having no friends? Having a vengeful ghost stalking you and threatening anyone who wants to BE your friend, of course. Not only that, but we've got the added tension of a friend who is pressuring Sadie to do things that she knows is wrong. Mal is elusive, and there are clues all along about her true nature that savvy readers will pick up, but the suspense is well developed and keeps the story very taut. We don't see a whole lot of Sadie's father, even though he is involved in talking to her teachers, getting her counseling, and wanting to know her whereabouts... sometimes. This seems very realistic. Charlotte is a great character, and she is very understanding about Sadie's situation, continuing to be friendly while not pushing her, and being a fantastic friend in the end. There are just enough classmates and staff members to round out the story, including Charlotte's friend Corey, who is nonbinary, and the counselor Mrs. Fitz, who gives Sadie good advice without asking too many questions. I enjoyed this one a lot, and am not surprised that Ms. Mejia found this too scary to work on at night!
Weaknesses: While I liked the explanation of why the mother left, I could have used more information about how exactly the ghost became attached to Sadie and also what happened to Anna. The explanation was there, but could have been a little clearer, and maybe have been delivered a little earlier in the story. It's a hard thing to balance; explanations and murderous ghosts!
What I really think: Definitely purchasing two copies, and this will be an enormous hit with fans of Dawson's Mine, Ford's The Lonely Ghost, and Currie's The Girl in White. Murderous ghosts really are the sweet spot for middle grade horror, and working in friend drama is definitely brilliant!

I was hooked from the cover and thought the feel of it worked with the ghost story feel of it. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel of this story. It had that horror element that I was looking for and thought everything was working in this world. I enjoyed the way Tehlor Kay Mejia wrote this and left me wanting to read more from them.

Thank you to NetGalley for approving my request for the eARC, I couldn't wait to read it.

This book grabbed my attention right away - spooky in the best way, where you feel just a bit uneasy through the whole story, but not so creeped out that you can't sleep.

The story follows Sadie, who is the new girl and school and feels invisible -- which is the goal all along. She wouldn't want anyone to notice her, or, heaven forbid, try to befriend her. If they did, they might also fall victim to the jealous ghost that killed her former best friend. Her plan of living a life reserved to the shadows is foiled by her well meaning father and school counselor 'volunteer' her to join the graphic novel club.

Sadie will eventually cross paths with Mal, a jealous and overbearing friend that both bullies and encourages Sadie to bully others - pulling a series of progressively cringey pranks on her classmates.

While there are some predictable plot lines, it is nothing outside of the expectation of what you want from a horror novel. There was a scene or two where I wasn't convinced of Sadie's decision making or thought process, but it wasn't enough for me to rate the book anything less than a 4.5.

There is so much that the author does well - I had to remind myself that Sadie was actually bullying her classmates, but I was inside her head so much while she rationalized her actions that I nearly forgot that making your classmates squeal isn't exactly a credit to humanity. I felt that many could identify with having a friend that you get enraptured by so quickly that you are blinded to their toxic behavior, until it is so late in the game you don't feel you can do much about it.

Mejia does an amazing job of capturing the mind of an anxious and uncertain tweenager. I haven't read this author before, but I'm sure to read more of their work after being introduced with this piece.

For fans of: The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura,