“Welcome, Lucy! We’re so glad you decided to join us. We’re going to have so much fun,” (Goebel 104).
After being bullied at her school in San Francisco, sixth grader Lucy is eager to start over in rural Alaska. She’s had to meet her new classmates virtually due to the extreme weather, but now that things are starting to thaw she’s both excited and nervous to meet the twelve other students in her class and, hopefully, make some friends. They’re very welcoming, and the other kids all sound excited to meet Lucy on her first day. But when she arrives to her first day of in-person classes Lucy finds a burnt husk where the school used to stand, and a small cemetery with each of her classmates names engraved on a tombstone. Is this another bullying prank, or is there something haunted about her new school?
I had such high hopes for I.R.L. It was buzzing around BookTok which made me curious because Middle Grade books are rarely talked about and I’ve been trying to read more of the genre. And the premise sounded good, a Middle Grade horror/ghost story for the modern age. I was curious, and lucky enough to get a hold on the item pretty quickly at my library. But for it’s slim 176 pages it sure was disappointing.
First the good, there are some good creepy passages in this. A dead bird tangled by some string in the woods, the description of the remains of the school, even some of the hauntings that occur are chilling and will delight any young horror fan reading this. I also really liked how it’s a modern haunting by incorporating technology into the creepiness, but I think the main problem is that there’s way too much happening for such a tiny book.
A new element was found in the ground of the land (phantomium…yeah) which, you guessed it, relates to our not so friendly ghosts. Our protagonist Lucy trying to put together what happened to the students and figure out what is happening, a POV change over halfway through to conveniently fill in some gaps that our protagonist never really becomes aware of, an abduction, a sixth grader DRIVING A CAR, and then a fire and battle in a research facility.
Also, Lucy’s parents made no sense to me. Here is your daughter who was a bullying victim at her old school that was so bad you literally moved States to start over and then your daughter is telling you she’s being bullied again though much worse since they’re threatening to kill her (also ghosts, but I understand Lucy not wanting to go into that) and you tell her she has to deal with it and that once they meet her they’ll want to be her friend?!
It is A LOT, and while I’m sure Goebel and her editors thought this would be nice and action-packed for the age group I think we need to give some credit to our young readers. They are smart enough to have moments of investigation in their books, they are smart enough to have a story slowly unfold for them. Action after action after action doesn’t help a story unfold, it just makes it more difficult to remember all the wild plots that are happening. And the last chapter was especially disappointing, offering a three page summary of where Lucy is now with a very week attempt at some last line jitters.
I’m sure a lot of young readers will like all the action, and they’ll definitely love the creepiness, but I hope more Middle Grade authors consider that their readers are smart enough to have a story unfold for them without needing constant action to keep them engaged. Have some faith in our young readers, they’ll surprise you!
Publication: February 4 2025
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 176 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Middle Grade, Horror
My Rating: ⛤⛤
Summary:
Not every kid would be thrilled to move to rural Alaska, but sixth grader Lucy is eager to leave her bullies behind and start over. However, it turns out that Lucy’s new school does remote learning from October to April, when the roads become too icy to navigate safely. Being the new kid is hard enough — how is she going to make friends when she can’t meet anyone in person?!
Luckily, the sixth grade class at White Pine Secondary School is tiny (just thirteen students) and they’re all super nice and really welcoming. While chatting on zoom, they ask Lucy lots of questions about living in the big city, some of which strike Lucy as a little odd but she just chalks it up to the fact that her new classmates have spent their whole lives in a VERY small town.
As the ice starts to thaw, Lucy grows increasingly excited about meeting her new friends in person! But when she enters the school’s address on her phone’s GPS, it leads her to a crumbling, clearly abandoned building with a rotted wood sign in front — a sign that reads White Pine Secondary School.
There’s nothing else in sight… except a tiny cemetery with snow-dusted headstones poking out of the frozen ground. Headstones will some very familiar names on them . . .
Lucy doesn’t know what to believe. Are her new “friends” pulling an elaborate prank? Or is truth far, far more horrifying?
Sarah O'Connor 