The Secrets of Hawthorne House

by Donald Firesmith

[Sarah Says]

The story opens with POV Matt Mitchell having a recurring nightmare. 15-yr-old Matt and his twin sister Tina are still reeling from their Dad moving them from the seaside town of Port Orford Oregon to Hawthorne Indiana where he grew up. With both kids still very much mourning the loss of their mother the story moves onto their first day at a new school. Matt and his sister wait out the front of their new house for the school bus, this is when we first get a glimpse of Hawthorn House through Matt’s perspective. The Bus arrives and Matt steps up onto the school bus after his sister and takes the only available seat next to a girl who promptly starts telling him ghost/wicked witch stories about the house next door to his. And so, the mystery of Hawthorn House begins.

Matt ends up having a rather rough first day at Hawthorne High, managing to get in the school bullies’ way almost instantly. BUT It’s not long before there is a new boy in Matt’s year that’s even more of an outsider than he is, Gerallt Hawthorne. After the loss of his father Gerallt, his mother, sister and little brother move into their great aunt’s house, the creepy mansion that is Hawthorn House.

The First 50% of this book was really good; The boys meet and grow to become friends, hang out together and bond over being outsiders and the fact they have both recently lost a parent. Together the boys find the courage to stand up to and then outsmart the bullies. A fantastic tale filled with the power of friendship. Drop the boys from 15 to 12 and it would have made an adorable, heart-warming, well rounded and fun MG novel.

But there is still more story to come!

Before the end of the book, we have two more story arcs. One involving Gerallt teaching Matt the Hawthorne ways and then the theft of a Hawthorne artifact. Of course, the boys must figure out who stole the artefact and then get it back. Then at 80% we get another new story arc in all the main characters searching for the Hawthorne family’s lost treasure. I think the latter two story arcs deserved to be expanded on, rather than cramped into the second half of the first book.

All and all, this was a very clean and innocent feeling, magic-filled YA (hence my age dropping MG suggestion). Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable read, with my only qualm being the later story plots deserved more fleshing out – I’m asking for more, so I’d say that’s a positive thing!