The Screaming Staircase

Book Title: The Screaming Staircase

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Series: Lockwood & Co #1

Date Started: April 12th 2023

Date Completed: April 21st 2023

Genres: Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to Double Day for this proof copy for review (from 10 years ago, I'm sorry) ◆

Having enjoyed the show, and receiving this proof copy in the mail about a decade ago, I thought it was time to have a little easy read from my TBR. The first Lockwood & Co book was good fun, exciting and spooky, and just the sort of thing I was looking for. Like the show, the well-balanced mix of worldbuilding and fantasy building, fleshing out parallels and similarities with our own reality, was pretty key in making the spoopy ghost-hunting adventures feel more mature and complex, with bigger enemies clearly at play behind the curtain and waiting for the heroes to find them.

It's fair to say that the recent Netflix adaptation is really quite faithful to the book, though this first novel instalment takes up a mere couple of episodes as the start of the tv series. On reflection, of course it was destined for Netflix glory as its episodic style, with multiple seemingly unrelated threads all tying together into a chilling finale is the perfect source material for such creations. And, even though I know the story and its twists, I still found experiencing it in its original medium engaging.

The most significant area of surprise for me was how unkind to its characters the prose is. There are constant jokes about George's weight (there isn't a single time he's referenced that doesn't include exaggerating his size) and Lucy 'smiling prettily' to get her way and being more 'sensitive to emotions' than the boys. Look, I don't think it's unfair to say that it hasn't aged very well in the last 10 years. That had no small part in making me appreciate the TV show and how well it adapted the story, developing areas of weakness and utilising the cinematic and enthralling mysteries and themes.

Unfortunately, the early 2010s attitude of body shaming and casual sexism isn't honestly something that fills me with a great desire to continue the series in book form, though I hold big hopes for the continuation of the more culturally-conscious Netflix adaptation bringing me more exciting ghost-hunting adventures with (their version) of the gang.