Claribel A. Ortega

Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.

Ghost Squad

Claribel Ortega

Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy. For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd's witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely's firefly spirits before it's too late. With the family dynamics of Coco and action-packed adventure of Ghostbusters, Claribel A. Ortega delivers both a thrillingly spooky and delightfully sweet debut novel.

Sarah Sammis

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega is a middle grade urban fantasy set in St. Augustine Florida. Lucely Luna, a Domican-American, and her father run a ghost tour. Recently business isn't good enough to keep up with the mortgage. Although it's been their family home for hundreds of years, the mortgage was taken out to make hurricane repairs. Lucely and her best-friend Sal will work together to save the house.

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Stef

Izza

3.5 stars | cute middle grade I listened to while working on my jigsaw 🧩

Ashley Wendt

I'm not sure what it was about the ending of this book but it had me in tears and took me by surprise.

Maxie Froelicher

Real rating 3.5 stars. This book was very cute! I read it because it is the Barnes & Noble middle grade book of the month.

always, annej 〄

*Actual rating: 3.5

Ghost Squad gives me the Stranger Things vibes (from season 1) with a hint of cuteness in it and more Spanish words. I’ve tried listening to its audiobook version and the experience was more heightened. I love that the narrators emphasized each word and that the scenes became more lively. 

Story:
For a middle grade book, the story is a bit predictable. This follows Lucely Luna and her best friend Syd in search of the missing page. Until all hells break loose and they unraveled some secrets they didn’t intended to. The story is a perfect read for middle grader readers who are looking for fantasy adventures while roaming in the darkness of the night. It also has that Harry Potter feels where the muggles’ memories are wiped out after a magical incident.

Setting:
In a small town of St. Augustine, where everyone knows one another. But do they, really? There might be monsters hiding underneath a bright exterior of one of town’s people, right? Oh, okay, that’s a spoiler in there. You can expect a lot of cemetery scenes because reader, these two kiddos love to go out there.

Romance:
It’s good that the author didn’t include a romantic scene in this book. Because what might happen? To be honest, the blend of familial love and friendship in this book is just in the right tone. Also, these kids are too young for that. I love that it centered more on their magical voyage in the cemeteries than in an infatuated love story between the kiddos.

Feelings:
It was fun! To mention that I’ve been listening to it on audio and each character’s feeling was emphasized. It was cute too and magical for a middle grade reader who is open to some Coco + Stranger Things + Ghostbusters feels. 

Characters:
There will be unraveling of more than one character which will surely surprise readers. There’s more than one character hiding beneath a bright exterior, is what I’m saying. Don’t get me wrong but that’s a good thing and a little something to look forward to when the plot twists.

Ending:
Good ending. Everyone deserves this conclusion. For a middle grade reader, you’ll never regret diving into this book. There’s always a rainbow after the rain. Or should I say, there’ll always be someone who’ll shine a light in the dark cemetery? 

And all these, reader, is an adventure for you to find out. Rating it 3.5. Always love a good middle grade book.

Candyce Kirk

Jessica Williamson

4.75

This book was so amazing! I read this on a whim today for my 31 spooky books in October reading challenge. I wanted something short that I could finish via audio while at work and this seemed like the perfect thing to do the trick! Let me tell you, I had about 45 minutes left of the book when I headed home and I cried so dang much during the last bit that I was glad I wasn't still sitting in the office.

The characters are wonderful, Luce and Syd are just your typical precocious 12 y/o's living their daily lives. Ya know, the usual, going to school, doing homework, living in a house with the ghosts of all your dead relatives, finding hidden rooms at your grandma's house full of creepy old witchy spell books, casting curses on your town. Like I said usual pre-teen stuff. 

Honestly seeing Lucely interacting with the ghosts of her Abuela, tías, tíos, and primos was just fantastic. Hearing their stories of how they died and how they continued to be a part of Lucely's life really resonated with me. I think I just kind of lost it at Lucely displaying affection for her Abuela's ghost. It's been three years since both of my grandmother's died and for some reason, this was the moment I realized that I'd never get to hug one of them again and yeah. This book broke me.

Can we also talk about the friendship between Syd and Luce? Let's do that. Because if this book teaches you anything, it's how important family is to you. But what it also shows, is that family isn't just the people you're born into, it's the people who join your journey along the way and become family. I love books with a found family aspect, even more so when it shows that you don't have to lose your entire family to NEED a found family. Sometimes people just become part of you and there's no reason to fight against that.

Now that I'm done waxing poetically about how this book really destroyed my feelings (honestly, mid-grade? Why does it always hit the hardest?!?!) let's talk about the plot a bit eh? I thought this was the perfect spooky fall time read. It had ghosts and ghouls and just enough scare to be tense for kids but also a fun read full of hope. With witches and curses and a possibly magical cat, what more could you ask for?

So yeah. This book is wonderful and I loved it. Highly recommend. 

Plot 4; Pace 5; Cover 4; Characters 4; Writing 5; Enjoyment 5; Cry bonus *.

Katie

This is such a fun book about fighting off evil and, of course, the power of family, including chosen family. I liked how the author infused the story with humor and high stakes, as well as lovely life lessons about valuing your family. It was super cute and a great middle grade read!

laura

* I got this book for review*
I found this to such a fun read that focused on ghost hunting, haunted houses and family. I also really liked the two lead characters in this book and how this book had a nice balance between parents and kids. I though the start was a bit confusing because we had so many plots to focus on but overall it was really fun read. I thought the ending was much clearer and really liked it. The ending me reminded me of some of the elements of charmed the original series. I also liked the diversity of the read and would def read more books set in this world.

Amanda Creek

Nickie Mohler

I really liked this one. Great characters, ghosts, witches. Perfect for the spooky season.

sara louise

3.5 stars rounded up

this was so much fun!

Abby Hoggatt

This was cute, funny, and was very "middle grade!"

Loredana

3,5/5 🌟

This book is just perfect for middle grade children and comforting for adults. Lucely had the power of sight, meaning she is capable to see the ghosts of her ancestors. Until the day everything starts to crumble : the bank is almost foreclosing her, and her father's house and with that her abuela's ghost seems to be sick. But fortunately Syd, her best friend is here to help.

The characters are cute and intelligent. The hispanic culture represented is a real plus to this book. In one sentence it's cute and funny, perfect to get comfort.

Leelynn Brady

This was one of the first MG books that I’ve read in a while, and honestly I totally forgot how much MG books could talk about really heavy things in a way that makes younger readers understand it. And this isn’t even a dig at younger readers or anything like that. But there’s a way that MG novels bring a kind of different nuance to heavier topics. To me, it feels like it allows a younger audience to see these topics in a way that makes them think about what they would do if they were in that situation, and just helps to have an open discussion without it feeling so taboo.

I mention this in the beginning because one of the topics that Ortega touches on in this novel is the fact that Lucely’s father could end up losing both his business and their house. It’s such an adult problem that I know I never thought about when I was younger because my mom never wanted me to have to worry about things that I couldn’t control. I feel like I was very blessed and privileged in that aspect because even though there were times where we were having financial troubles, it was never something that I as a child or adolescent ever felt. It wasn’t enough for me to think about whether I needed to find a job to help pay the bills, or stop any of my extra curricular activities to save money. My mom really blessed me with that kind of peace of mind, and I know that isn’t the case for everyone. So seeing Lucely overhear a conversation between her dad and some banker dude (I forget his name) and the possibility of them losing their house is mentioned, I couldn’t even imagine how I would have felt as a child hearing that.

So even though that was something that was in Lucely’s mind the entire time this novel was taking place, Ortega did it in a way that didn’t make Lucely feel like she was “too young” to be thinking about adult worries, but also gave a younger girl’s perspective on what she felt like she needed to do to help her father get through this. And I don’t know if this makes sense but to me, that was so important to portray in the right way because it does happen, and it is a legitimate concern for some children. Especially since this is also considered a fantasy/paranormal book because of the family ghosts and the magic, it can show kids that there are real life issues that can happen in a fantastical world, and maybe working on one problem can help solve the other problem. It may not be perfect, but maybe it can happen.

That was a really long thought process and it wasn’t even really what the book was about per se, but I guess it was something that I needed to get out, so there we go.


Now that that is off my chest. I can get on to some of my other thoughts on the novel.

Even though I didn’t love this book, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it. Maybe it was the pacing of the chapters that threw me off a bit, or maybe it was some of the dialogue. I don’t really know, and unless I reread it right now, I won’t be able to truly pinpoint it but I do think it’s a combination of the two. There were some points that I did enjoy, like whenever Luce would talk with her cousins and they would give her advice or just make her feel like the younger cousin that she is, but then there were some conversations that to me just felt like they abruptly ended with no resolution.

I think it’s funny that I need some sort of resolution in my novels when I can’t even find resolution in my own life, but whatever.

But I did enjoy the storyline. I like that the concept of the fireflies was explained a little bit more towards the middle of the book. I like that even though Luce and Syd were trying to have their adventures by themselves, Babette still got involved to make sure that they didn’t hurt themselves with magic that they didn’t understand. Even though they tried to hide it in the beginning, I was so glad that they had adult supervision. Isn’t that a weird thing to like?? I just didn’t want these girls to be completely alone when they were facing some heavy duty enemies. So yay for Babette being the parental figure in this case. At least when it came to their late night tasks.

And yeah. I think this was my first time seeing a Dominican protagonist in a MG novel, and it was so cool to see it. I loved the Spanish dialogue sprinkled here and there, and how it really felt like someone that was fluent in Spanglish. It reminded me of when my grandma starts speaking in both Chamorro and English and my mom understands her but I can’t. Boo for not being able to speak or understand Chamorro, but that’s my fault.

So there were just things that reminded me of some of my family dynamics and what I remember growing up, and I think that’s what made this book special for me. I look forward to reading more from Ortega, and I definitely hope that she writes more #OwnVoices novels.

Kelsey Holtaway

The perfect book to bring in fall. I loved the ghosts, witches, and lore, but i loved the friendship between Lucely and Syd the most.

Laura Springall

A cute and quick read, but ultimately the plot was extremely predictable and not all that interesting. It may just be that the target audience is s little bit too young for my personal tastes; I usually love middle grade but this felt like it was written for... whatever is a step below middle grade, I can’t think of the word 😂. I love the family aspect to this though, it was really sweet! And the concept of spirits turning into fireflies is really nice too.

Melea Mullican

This book is adorable. I adored the dynamics between the characters + ghosts! Rarely does middle grade actually involve the adults, so it was really refreshing that this one did. Actually, the grandmother was one of my favorite characters. I highly recommend this book.

Wiktoria Cembala

Becca Futrell

I won a copy of Ghost Squad through a Goodreads Giveaway & am choosing to provide my honest opinion!

So here's the thing -- I meant to write a review AGES AGO but fell into a lack of motivation abyss. & now, I'm a little too rusty to write anything meaningful.

However! I will say that I loved Ghost Squad and it lived up to all of my expectations. I loved the family & friendship aspects, the ghosts, the ~spookiness~, Chunk. I loved everything and 10/10 recommend.

Jelke Olila

Kate

A super fun adventure story with the perfect amount of magic, spook and fat cat content.

Ghost Squad

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