Four siblings and their new two sister thrown together in the country at the start of their first summer together. Everyone is experiencing adjustment and growing pains and then a poltergeist shows up to make it interesting.

I am afraid I am Ingrid.

This book was a hoot. Amanda, the stepsister who is obsessed with the supernatural and is sullen and manipulative, is pretty unlikable, but you can't help but root for her. I wish we had seen more hijinks starring her pet crow, as that's a missed opportunity for hilarious scenes, but overall this book is a riot.

3.5

A fan of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Egypt Game, I thought it would be opportune to read the Newbery Honor The Headless Cupid since it is February. Like The Egypt Game, the pre-mobile device imaginations portrayed by the characters is quite noticeable.

Overall, the book is spooky, and the how each of the characters navigate the mystery is interesting. One early scene is dated, and it wouldn't be written into a children's book today.

I didn’t care for this book. It just didn’t engage me. I picked it up without reading the back matter etc. it may be that I didn’t like these kids messing around with occult ideas and that whole angle.

While I was reading this, I felt like Snyder was ripping off her own work. Then I realized I was confusing this with Konigsburg's Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth which when I read that one felt like she was going for Egypt Game vibes from Snyder. Kind of a vicious circle, which Egypt Game comes out of the clear winner.

This was just mean. This was not a nice book by any stretch of the imagination.

I read this a bazillion years ago and the story ran away from my memory but I've always remembered that it was my very favorite book! Well, needing to cleanse my reading palette, I decided to listen and OMG....I don't feel bad saying that I need this level of book from now on. LOL. No fluff or drawn out descriptions, just a very fun and spooky story. I love the book even more after all these years!!

A blended family and childhood, in general, is messy. David is a wonderfully articulated and complex protagonist for this story. The Headless Cupid is a terrific read-along mystery for my son and me. I'm embarrassed to admit that the hair on my arms and legs stood up when the cupid's head rolled down the stairs. Whoops.

This is my favorite childhood book.

I read this book a couple of times as a kid and I had a lot of fond memories of it, especially of it being a pretty creepy book. I decided to pick it up again and read it to my kids. I found it to be fairly tame at this point in my life, but I still enjoyed it and so did my kids (although they didn't think it was scary, either).

I bought a copy of this because it was mentioned in a Lemony Snickett book and sounded really cool. Despite being a famous 70s children's book I'd never heard of it or the author! It was interesting. Kids into the occult, having rituals and seances. Definitely something I wouldn't have been allowed to read as a child. But also kinda dumb in that it was clearly the older step sister making things up. But quite enjoyable.

I’m rating this book as I remember it in 5th or 6th grade.