3 out of 5 stars
I crossed out the title page on this one with a red pen...guess I didn't like the title or something. This one was alright, not great, didn't seem to have much purpose. (Not that any of them do, I suppose.) Anyway, we open with Stacey coming home from a "fabulous" weekend in NYC with her dad. Quote marks because it actually kind of sucked. Her dad works most of the weekend and hounds her about her diabetes when they go out to eat. But she gets to go shopping so she can look tres sophisticated in po-dunk Stoneybrook. [Stacey] I had dressed for my train ride in a white jumpsuit, layered over a blue tank top. I had on white push-down socks with blue hearts all over them, a wide blue patent leather belt, and a wild necklace made of all kinds of plastic sea creatures in a rainbow of colors.
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We actually get a double What Stacey is Wearing for this book woot woot, so here's Stace's new outfit she wears to school later on: I'd gotten this pink polka-dotted short skirt with suspender straps and had worn it with an oversized white T-shirt. I had on my pink high0top sneakers, folded down to show their striped lining. I'd also worn these great earrings Claud had given me for my birthday. They had all these little pink plastic hearts dangling down from one bigger heart. In case you haven't noticed, I do like the color pink! (Yeah, we noticed. I'm not sure how great that looks with your blonde hair and "golden" skin though.)
So, Stacey is home from a long weekend and at Monday's BSC meeting...Dr Johanssen, Charlotte's mom, calls and says that she & Mr. need to go out of town for a week to take care of Dr's sick dad. She wants to know if Charlotte can stay with Stacey and her mom for the week. I'm not really sure why she didn't call Mrs. McGill first for this, but I guess she knows Kristy has the final say-so lol. Mrs. McGill says yes and Stacey is super excited. She fixes up the guest room for Charlotte, putting new sheets on the bed and toys and books on the shelves. She thinks it will be just like having a little sister and it'll be so much fun, etc...
Well, Charlotte arrives and it is NOT fun. She's worried about her Grandpa, understandably, but also super clingy to her parents before they leave and Mopey Moperson after. To get her mind off things, she tells Charlotte about this old house that is getting torn down in their neighborhood. The other BSCers (those born there that is) are completely absorbed in this story for some reason. I guess they've never seen a house torn down before. Stacey is like "Whatevs" but Charlotte seems interested, so they go check it out. While there, some seriously weird (although explainable) things happen: they hear clanging pipes, see a face in a window after the workmen have left, there's a huge swarm of flies near the back door, and they see a fire in one of the windows but it immediately goes out, like it was never there. Freaky right?
Charlotte & Stacey take off after that and both have these horrible nightmares, so naturally, Kristy calls an emergency BSC meeting to figure this crap out. She finds some old books in Watson's McLibrary and finds out that Stoneybrook was built on an ancient burial ground (Whaaatt???) and the house is on the, supposedly, most sacred spot of all. Yeah, I can't make this stuff up. Is this what the mysteries are going to be like? Cause I don't know if I want to read them after all lol. Anyway, this is such an awesome mystery that it even interests Claudia and she goes where no C- art student has gone before: the library. ;) She finds the previous owner, this super old dude named...oh, it doesn't matter...and her, Kristy, Stacey, and Charlotte go to the nursing home to visit him and get some answers. He never has any visitors, so to keep them there as long as possible, he tells them all these wacky stories about how the house is haunted and don't go to the construction site, oooohhhh....Luckily, the BSCers are skeptical and don't quite believe him.
In between all this, Charlotte keeps telling Stacey she feels sick and Super Sitter that Stacey is, she thinks it's just homesickness. Until Char has a fever and is almost on her deathbed. Okay not really, but she does have tonsillitis and Stacey & Mrs. McGill feel really bad. Char hates her medicine and refuses to take it, until Stacey has the bright idea to show Char all her diabetes stuff and what she has to do every day. This was kind of anti-climactic for all that foreshadowing in the last few books of Stacey not feeling well and stuff. I was hoping for at least a fainting spell in the cafeteria again. But no, she just has to be even more vigilant. Boo.
Alright, it's the day of the house destruction, Charlotte is feeling better, so they decide to go watch. Along with most of Stoneybrook apparently. Everything is all normal and kind of boring, until Stacey suddenly sees the house catch fire. She freaks, but when she looks around, realizes that nobody else sees it! She gets this sudden urge to go see the old dude, so she leaves Char with Claudia and runs all the way to the home. When she gets there, she finds out he died last night and left her a note explaining that he was just kidding and the house was totally fine and he's sorry for lying. Okay.
When she comes outside, she is picked up by Kristy and her brothers, who tell her that they talked to the construction workers and everything weird is explained away. There was one worker left that day, who they saw in the window, and he was using a torch (fire), and the flies were actually bees (yeah, I think I can tell the difference between a fly and a bee). But it doesn't explain the fire Stacey saw that day, which is totally creepy. I think her insulin is getting to her. Anyway, Char's parents come home, Grandpa is fine, and everything is good...except for that one cold spot in the school gym. Oh and did you see that baby stroller floating by? Ooooh....haha!!
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