This book was a bit of a miss for me. The ghost was actually fairly scary when it did appear. It was actually way scarier than the kind of fun artwork on the cover prepared me for. Still, it took so long for the ghost to appear in the first place, then there were long slogs through seemingly mountains of dialogue to get to where the ghost appeared again. I'm not really sure what kind of kid I would recommend this one to. It is a bit of a mystery, but it takes a really long time to get to the mystery. It focuses on Danny's issues with his parents and his love of his neighborhood, but it is too scary at times for those who like realistic fiction. And not consistently scary enough for those who are into horror books. So I'm not really sure who the right reader for this one is.

I will say that I love the diversity and character of the setting. And the character of Danny is pretty well rounded. Still, I found the whole thing mostly boring with a few short periods of excitement.

Danny has always lived in the shadow of his older brother, Jake. Once Jake goes off to college, Danny is hoping he'll finally have a real bedroom instead of the closet that's been his bedroom for years. He is understandably disappointed when his parents tell him they are going to rent out Jake's room, which means Danny has to stay in the closet. As soon as Jake's room is all ready for the first guests, strange things begin to happen. Danny and his two best friends Gus and Nat are determined to get to the bottom of it. I liked the inclusion of Jewish and Arab traditions and stories. With solid writing and likable characters, I give this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to four. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read an advanced copy.

Danny has been looking forward to inheriting his older brother's bedroom, but now that the opportunity is here, his parents have decided to rent it out! As if that wasn't bad enough, Danny starts noticing odd things happening, then it escalates to a true haunting! Danny and his friends do some exploration of Brooklyn and its history to solve this mystery. Can they figure out a way to appease the ghost without being scared out of their wits?

This is a gentle ghost story for younger or sensitive readers. The beginning felt overly detailed in places, but some of those details fed into the main story later on and became relevant. The details did help to orient readers to the setting. I have students who love Denis Markell and will be thrilled to read his new title!

The Ghost in Apartment 2R is a middle-grade book about Danny, a tween whose older brother has just moved away to start college. Danny was supposed to get to move into his brother's room in their tiny 2-bedroom apartment, but then his parents drop a bombshell: to save enough money for tuition, his parents will be renting out the room on AirHotel, an Airbnb standin. Only it seems like someone-- or something-- really doesn't want the room rented...

I liked the way Markell made a point of spelling out how Brooklyn is changing, even explaining how controlled-rent apartments have allowed some families to stay as neighborhoods grew more wealthy around them. The kids at my library don't particularly care about books that name-check Brooklyn and New York City, but gentrification is something much more universal and relatable. This book is also the first kids' book I've read that includes a family renting some or all of their home for Airbnb, another thing that I'm sure many of them have encountered. I wish Markell had been able to show more and tell less about the cultural and ethnic diversity Danny loves so much in Brooklyn, but our three main child characters and their Jewish-American, Arab-American, and Italian(?)-American families are well-characterized. Markell also used the kids' families to talk about ghosts and spirits in various cultural contexts, which was great.

What didn't work as well for me was the ghost story itself. Since "ghost" is in the title of the book and on the cover, readers are clued in pretty early that this isn't all in Danny's imagination, but even so, it takes way too long for our ghost to truly appear. When the ghost does show up, about halfway through the book, she's SCARY, much scarier than the rest of the story around it. Possession and breaking into a child's bedroom at night: I don't think it's TOO scary for this age range, but I do think the cover and story to that point haven't prepared readers for that kind of spook factor. The cover in particular speaks to stories of friendly ghost-human friendships more common in middle grade books. The story wraps up well in the end so fraidy-cats like me can sleep at night, but I'll bet a lot of kids won't make it that far if the ghost story feels too different from the cover.

Markell's writing style reminds me of the first-person narrations of Chris Grabenstein and James Patterson's children's books. It's fast-paced, easy to read, and, while not my favorite, speaks well to its middle-grade audience. Overall I think this is a good book for a lot of things but maybe not the best ghost story for my library.