Oh so good!! Super creepy and mysterious. Agatha and Leopold were meant to be friends and he is the sidekick every adventurer needs. The ghosts are creepy and I can’t wait to see what the next four books have in store. A solid middle grade series.

A fun spooky middle grade read! Students love Agatha Anxious and cheered her on as she overcome her own fears to be the hero of her story.

Thank you Crumblebee and NetGalley for the ARC.

Agatha Anxious and the Deer Island Ghost was a spooky read. The story is interesting and the characters add to the story. I look forward to reading the next books in the series. Fans of Goosebumps will definitely enjoy this book.

This is a wonderful middle grades mystery/thriller/horror. And there really are some scary moments. Agatha is unique and owns it. Her Aunt Hattie is a fun character. I love Leopold and the growing friendship between him and Agatha. I don't really care for pirates or Mardi Gras and they are a focus of the mystery but not of the book. I'm so, so pleased that this is going to be a series! Special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- Adore the cover on this one!

I really enjoy middle grade books. Especially if they a spooky paranormal angle! <b>Agatha Anxious & the Deer Island Ghost</b> was an entertaining read. Well written. Well paced. Atmospheric. The plot was engaging. The characters were well developed and aptly named (😂). I look forward to seeing what they get up to in the next book in the series. 👍🏻👍🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I got this book from Netgalley and kinda wanted to save it for October… but I also just really wanted to read it now. So that’s what I did.

We follow Agatha Anxious who finds out she is a Perceiver; someone who can see ghosts and help them go back to sleep. Her aunt Hettie is also a Perceiver, but she goes missing. So Agatha (with the help of her friend Leopold Panic and some assistance for classmate Dominc Doom – I love the names…) has to help ghost that is haunting her and try to save her aunt as well.

And the scenes with the ghosts are actually very creepy. Middle grade horrors can be so good, and this is certainly one of those. Proper ghosts that give you the chills. So, when it comes to the horror elements the atmosphere was perfect. But… I feel I was still missing something in the atmosphere. Although the author grew up in Mississipi, I didn’t feel that at all. Apart from a few nods, I feel this book could have been set anywhere.

I liked Agatha as a character. She comes across as quiet and thoughtful but is also very much a leader who does what needs to be done. Another element of her character which I personally appreciated (although I can understand if others don’t) is that she bites/pulls the skin and cuticles on her fingers when she get nervous or anxious. Which is something I very much recognized myself in…

The writing of the book could use some work. There are quite a few inconsistencies (some of which are easy enough to fix so I don’t know if they appear in the finished copy), such as there being too many days in the week, the dog having several favourite sleeping spots, or a white cat being described as black. And several more

This is the first book in its series, and I will pick up its sequel for sure. I also couldn’t help but feel that this book would fit very well among the Audible Original Middle Grade books… it just gave me very similar feels as some of those did. So I do hope we get an audiobook version of this book.

Adored this one! McDowell beautifully encaptures the atmosphere of the south while creating a spooky environment perfect for middle grade readers and older readers alike. Agatha was such a lovely heroine full of life and heart, and I'm so so excited to see where Agatha's stories go next. Lovers of R.L. Stine and Katherine Arden will love AGATHA ANXIOUS & THE DEER ISLAND GHOST.

Creepy and Spooky!

The story starts off with us meeting Agatha Anxious, a 13-year-old girl with odd habits and even odder abilities. Her odds habits and abilities include biting her nails until they bleed, often visiting her uncle's grave and seeing ghosts. That’s right, she sees ghosts because she is a Perceiver just like her Aunt Hattie.

Once Agatha becomes aware of her ability to see ghosts her whole world is turned upside down. You see, if you can see a ghost then chances are they need your help. Agatha learns that she must help a ghost, and that is her duty above everything else.

I absolutely loved the characters and the character development in this book. I am also pleased to know that Agatha’s story doesn’t end here, but “Agatha Anxious and the Deer Island Ghost” is the first book in the Dead Fellow Five series by R.J. McDowell. I am so excited to follow her journey!

I highly recommend everyone pick this up, it’s an amazing fall read!

Thank You to R.J. McDowell and Crumblebee Books, for the digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This was a really fun and suitably creepy story for middle graders.
It's almost Agatha's 13th birthday and all she wants is a dress with pockets. What she gets instead is a legacy. It turns out that like her Aunt she can see ghosts, and it's her job to figure out what they want and help them move on.
At first, understandably Agatha is pretty freaked out, the ghost is very creepy especially at first when he first starts manifesting, but after some sage advice from her Aunt Hettie, Agatha decides to recruit her new friend Leopold and help this poor ghost out. and we get a glimpse of an even scarier ghost that we know she will have to face later.
I really liked how Agatha conquered her fear and helped her ghost, I loved the history and backstory given to our ghosts and how everything was resolved. I will definitely be reading what I hope is a decently long series. I can't wait to see who Agatha and Leopold will be helping next!

“Her mother know how to sew on buttons, apparently, but had not figured out pockets.”

Wow what a fun first boo for the series, thank you NetGalley for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

While I absolutely loved the story and can’t wait to see it continued. There are two points I want to make, and are the reason I didn’t give this book the five starts I wanted to.

The body shaming of the teacher was really pointless, and where this book is directed to our younger generation I think wording used in this book should be taken into consideration, kids people up on those things.

Second one is one mention of sitting ‘Indian-Style’. Again unnecessary especially where it’s an old term, something else could have been used.

The children and I very much enjoyed this exciting book. We laughed out loud and screamed (very enthusiastically ) at the scary parts. A good fun book for all of the family.

This is the perfect book for younger readers who enjoy scary stories. I thought the level of scariness was perfect for the intended audience. It will creep them out without giving them nightmares (although they may want to avoid reading it in the dark right before bed). I really liked Agatha and enjoyed watching her accept her responsibility as a Perceiver and make the difficult decisions required of her. Her ability to just go with everything rather than run from them was admirable. The story behind Agatha's ghost was a sad one, which made it so much better when she helped him. She and Leopold made a great team - I'm hoping there is more balance in that relationship in future books rather than him just following Agatha everywhere. I would also like to see if he gets a ghost to help. And of course, I'd love to see if Dorian joins their team. This is a great start to what promises to be a great series! I think it would be a great addition to any classroom and school library.

Disfrute muchísimo este middle grade! Recomiendo que si estás comenzando a leer en éste idioma, es simple y sencillo ✨❤️

This book is sufficiently creepy and engaging. Both children and adults will love this story steeped in Mississippi folk lore. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!!!

THE DEAD DON’T TALK…OR DO THEY?

On her 13th birthday, Agatha Anxious is assigned her first ghost.

Now, her Aunt Hattie has vanished. A pirate coin, strange messages drawn by a skeleton hand, and a chance book report provide clues to unraveling the mystery, one which requires a midnight trip to a funeral home and a secret mission to a haunted Mardi Gras mask shop.

An evil from the past has surfaced in Biloxi. Can Agatha use her newfound gifts to save her Aunt, or will she be the next victim of an old ghost with a grudge?

I’m her latest middle grade novel McDowell manages to capture the essence of the iconic ghost story, telling the tale of the ghosts, and secrets that haunt the town of Biloxi, Mississippi and the nearby Deer Island.

Lathered in atmospheric locations that only the South can conjure, quirky and courageous characters and spooky and terrifying villains, you are taken on an exciting and oftentimes perilous adventure with Agatha Anxious as she tries to uncover the hidden truths of her town and past to locate her disappeared grandmother.

Full of twists and turns, spooks and screams this is a fun filled story that I couldn’t put down and you wouldn’t want to miss out on.

agatha anxious and the deer island ghost was a very fun read, perfect for young readers who would like to get scared a bit !

This has a lot of fatphobia (the only bad human is also the only fat person—Mrs. Wright. She is **constantly** described as jiggling, fleshy, gross, bloated, etc) that could be harmful to a young audience. I hope this is fixed before it gets in the hands of children.

Such an incredibly fun story! I truly enjoyed the characters in this novel, and the plot had me hooked fairly early on.

Agatha just discovered her ability to speak to ghosts. And then her aunt disappears.

She always felt incredibly close to her Aunt Hattie even though she’s known to be a bit quirky. Much like her beloved aunt, there is a predetermined path for us all. Soon a mystery arises in the form of a lost soul who is trying to reach out to Agatha to get her help in righting a wrong from beyond the grave.

When she realizes that her and one of classmates share the same talent, they embark on an adventure to save her aunt and unravel the mysteries she left behind.

Agatha was a fun and rambunctious character, and I loved her moxie so much! With a fairly clear path leading to the next in this series, I am very excited to continue to travel along it.

↓ Similar Reads ↓
1. Lora Senf’s The Clackity
2. Justina Ireland’s Ophie’s Ghosts
3. Betty Ren Wright’s The Dollhouse Murders

Thank you so much to Crumblebee Books and #Netgalley for gifting me an ARC of Agatha Anxious & the Deer Island Ghost by RJ McDowell in exchange for this honest review!

Agatha Anxious is not your average child on the cusp of teenagerdom. She has a terrible habit of biting at her nails until they bleed. She spends her free time in the cemetery by her house. And, on the eve of her thirteenth birthday, she learns that she can see ghosts. After this discovery, Agatha’s life turns upside down. Her first ghost demands for something taken to be returned, her English teacher assigns a book report on a very different ghost, and Aunt Hattie – her rock and the only person who understands what she is going through – goes missing. A book filled with ghost stories, humor, and an unlikely heroine, Agatha Anxious & the Deer Island Ghost will be on shelves this September!

The atmospheric setting of Biloxi, Mississippi, felt simultaneously perfect for summer and autumn. The thick humidity and smell of the shoreline gave me summer vibes (even as Agatha trudges to school), but Agatha’s strolls through the cemetery and the hair-raising interactions with ghosts and the like would make this a great addition to anyone’s spooky reading pile. McDowell’s use of thriller elements, like the switch in POV to Aunt Hattie, raised the tension tenfold because we as readers knew something that Agatha still needed to discover.

While I enjoyed the loving relationship between Agatha and Aunt Hattie, it seemed a bit unbelievable that the aunt would leave Agatha in the dark about so much. She also felt like the child in their dynamic at times while Agatha read as the more mature one. It also felt a tad convenient that within maybe 24 hours of learning about the undertaker/oracle and receiving a warning from Hattie, Agatha would be seeking his assistance to help her aunt. I think it would have helped to learn about him earlier during Agatha’s first discovery that she is a Perceiver. I see many parallels to another recent middle grade read, The Clackity. The difference is that I had a stronger visual of where the plot was leading in the latter.

With that said, I can 100% see many middle grade readers growing attached to Agatha and her ghost-filled world. I can also see myself recommending this book to the right reader in the future.

It was a nice book! I think I would have loved this book back in middle school - Agatha is a fun character and I liked the side characters, and it’s an interesting premise.

I do feel like her aunt was frustratingly vague the entire time - there’s a difference between some things being left unsaid for plot reasons and “not explaining anything at all” like Hattie seemed to be following. And, the depiction of the mean and bitter English teacher constantly being described as pudgy and fat felt incredibly unnecessary.

I did enjoy this, however, and I think its target audience would love the book! Thanks to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.