Heather also starts threatening her stepbrother and stepsister. Heather starts to lie even more about her stepbrother and stepsister, which causes their parents to take sides and to fight more often. Soon, things become very tense for the entire family. Molly is the only person to discover Heather's new friend. As sign of friendship, the ghost gives Heather the locket Helen wore while she was alive. She tells Heather that she, Helen, is the only one who will ever love and accept her, no matter what Heather does. Helen quickly realizes Heather is just as lonely and miserable as she. Both of them lost immediate family members to those fires. Helen and Heather are the same age, seven years old. The graveyard is haunted by a lonely ghost named Helen Harper. Moving into their new home only makes their problems worse. Heather hates her stepfamily and causes problems, hoping it will cause Dave and Jean to divorce. Heather's father, Dave, married Molly and Michael's mother, Jean. The previous owners converted it into a house. The house was originally a church, so it still has a graveyard located out back. I absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for a scary, ghost story.The book begins with a stepfamily moving into a new house located in the country. Molly is a great protagonist, she’s very believable and I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. Hahn did a great job of entwining history and ghosts. But, why the heck was she not taken to a therapist? Spoiling a kid is never the right course, no matter what the situation! Ok, other than that, I love this book! I always go back to it when I’m looking for a creepy read. Yes, Heather saw her mother die in a fire and I get that that would be a traumatic thing for a kid. I don’t have much patience for self-pity, or for the excuses people use to shift responsibility for their lives. I think we’ve already established that I’m not a very compassionate person. I just don’t understand how any parent could allow their child to act the way that she does. Unfortunately, I doubt she could be changed much because her awfulness is what makes Helen believable. I very much enjoyed this story, but I gave it 4 stars because of Heather.

I was looking for scary, ghost stories and this one was perfect! After I finished this book, I worked my way through most of her other books. This was the first book by Mary Downing Hahn that I read. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond…to drown! I don’t want to believe in ghosts, but I’ve followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home - a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. But since our mother married her father, we’re stuck with her…our “poor stepsister” who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.īut now something terrible has happened. Always getting Michael and me into trouble.

Helen from wait till helen comes