The Girl with the Ghost Machine

by Lauren DeStefano

First published 2017

Emmaline Beaumont watches her father disappear into the basement every day. Monsieur Beaumont spends his time building a device he believes will resurrect his dead wife. The contraption consumes his thoughts and his days. He barely notices his living daughter anymore. Emmaline grows tired of being invisible in her own home. The machine was supposed to bring back her mother, but it has only stolen away her father. She sees how the project has changed him. His obsession grows stronger while his connection to the real world weakens. Emmaline faces a choice that will determine her family's future. She can try to complete the ghost machine and give her father what he wants. Or she can destroy the device that has already destroyed so much. Either path means confronting the grief that drives them both. Emmaline must decide whether some losses are meant to stay permanent.

Genres: literary-fiction, grief, fantasy, family-drama

Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking

Tropes: grief, loss

Setting: Basement

Period: Present Day

224 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury USA Childrens

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