This Is Not a Ghost Story

Written by Andrea Portes

Narrated by Lauren Ezzo

Nothing is as it seems in this chilling, twisting tale by bestselling author Andrea Portes, perfect for fans of Madeleine Roux and Danielle Vega.

Rife with dark humor and chilling twists, This Is Not a Ghost Story is American Horror Story meets There’s Someone Inside Your House. It will have readers flipping back to the very first page after the shocking finale.  

I am not welcome. Somehow I know that. Something doesn’t want me here.

Daffodil Franklin has plans for a quiet summer before her freshman year at college, and luckily, she’s found the job that can give her just that: housesitting a mansion for a wealthy couple.

But as the summer progresses and shadows lengthen, Daffodil comes to realize the house is more than it appears. The spacious home seems to close in on her, and as she takes the long road into town, she feels eyes on her the entire way, and something tugging her back.

What Daffodil doesn’t yet realize is that her job comes with a steep price. The house has a long-ago grudge it needs to settle . . . and Daffodil is the key to settling it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9780063033603

Andrea Portes

Andrea Portes is the bestselling novelist of two critically lauded adult novels, Hick, her debut, which was made into a feature film starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, and Juliette Lewis, and Bury This. Her first novel for young adult readers, Anatomy of a Misfit, was called “perfection in book form” by Teen Vogue. Her other YA novels include The Fall of Butterflies and Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me. Andrea Portes’s spooky, timeless middle grade debut is Henry & Eva and the Castle on the Cliff. Andrea grew up on the outskirts of Lincoln, Nebraska. Later, she attended Bryn Mawr College. Currently she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Sandy Tolan, their son, Wyatt, and their dog, Rascal. You can visit her online at www.andreaportes.squarespace.com.

Reviews for This Is Not a Ghost Story

[ennuiprayer · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The plot was ok - albeit a tad predictable and redundant - but the execution was boring.

[sennebec · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When you meet Daffodil, she's in search of a summer job near Bryn Mawr College where she'll be a freshman in the fall. As luck would have it, the first place she asks is at a mansion where the owners, a professor and his wife, are off to an island for the summer. The money offered, and what's expected of Daffodil, are too good to pass up. However, it's not long after she begins taking care of the place that odd, then frightening events start happening. Told in a back and forth between present time at the mansion and her growing up and tough life back in Nebraska, this is as much a scary tale as it is one of loss and detachment from humanity on Daffodil's part. The events at the end surprised me as I certainly didn't see them coming, and they made the read all the better for me.