This was a creepy ghost story that is perfect for MG readers. The author really captures the Mc's loneliness after suffering a tragic loss. The exploration of toxic friendships is also explored through a ghostly setting.

Trigger Warnings: Parental abandonment, grief, mental health, toxic relationship, bullying

Sadie Rivera has been haunted all her life by a ghost who doesn’t allow her to make friends. The moment she tries, light bulbs begin exploding, chilly gusts of wind blow through even closed hallways, and accidents begin to happen. Last year, Anna finally made a best friend, Anna. So when the ghost caused an accident that killed her, Sadie knew it was her fault. Which is why she’s keeping to herself at this new school in Idaho. At least until she meets the mysterious cool girl Mal and the ghost doesn’t bother her for once. But Mal wants Sadie all to herself and she’ll do anything to make sure that happens.

I really, really enjoyed Tehlor Kay Mejia’s We Set the Dark on Fire duology and was super excited when I heard about their middle grade horror novel.

I believe Mejia’s did a wonderful job at catching the loneliness and depression that Sadie was in due to the ghost haunting her, and how much she craved the connection of friendship. Mejia uses a supernatural lens to talk about toxic friendships; what it looks like, what it feels like, and what one can do if they find themselves in one. I was very proud of Sadie when she (finally) began to figure out what was happening and that how she was being treated was not right.

Overall, this was a great middle grade horror read - scary, but nothing super crazy for the age group. It brings up a lot of conversation around social skills and friendships and what ultimately, at the end of the day, is a healthy one for each person.

Sadie has never known solitude; she has always been bound to a haunting presence that shadows her every step. It has shattered her life and tragically claimed the life of a dear friend. When Sadie transfers to a new school, she yearns to fit in, but the sudden appearance of a new friend brings with it an unsettling undercurrent of danger. Kay Mejia has a talent for conjuring an eerie atmosphere and stirring those tingly emotions within us. Yet, unfortunately, It Happened to Anna seems to falter when it comes to delivering genuine creepiness and a truly spine-chilling tale. Much of the narrative is filled with practical jokes and Sadie’s anxious quest to understand the ghost that lingers around her. The conclusion and twist feel all too predictable, but it might still resonate with young readers in search of a lighthearted spooky story.

As soon as I heard we had more coming from Tehlor Kay Mejia I’ve been hyped up on excitement ever since. Mejia’s books are always a creepy, fun time. This one was no different.

The horror aspect of this was very cool. I did think it was a bit predictable, but I didn’t know just how deep it went. And Lordt this one got dark. I can say i gasped when it was all finally explained. If you think you know from the beginning of the book, trust me, you just don’t

The thing I didn’t like about this was also part of the thing I liked most. I LOVED that there was another layer to this. It wasn’t just creepy. There’s a layer of bullying in this too that I really enjoyed seeing. I was not at all ready for the way it made me feel for the person doing the bullying tho. However, I didn’t like it because we don’t actually see anything happening to her. I get that things were happening, but I wish there was some type of closure.

The way this was a MG that still creeped me out in the best way! I didn’t care for the ending but the rest of this book was wild. I don’t want to give anything away, but it was a good read, perfect to add to your SummerWeen TBR.

I’ve always loved horror, so I really enjoyed how Meija uses the horror genre to explore grooming, toxic friendship, peer pressure, and bullying via “pranks.” I've never been a fan of middle school pranks, so I especially enjoyed how the story shows how these pranks can be hurtful, harmful, and truly an act of bullying.

Sadie, our FMC, is easy to sympathize with. She recently lost her best friend to the ghost that haunts her. As a result, she struggles with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and a fear that making friends at her new school may anger the ghost who haunts her, potentially leading to another "accidental" death. Her loneliness feels heavy and overwhelming. I think tweens will relate to Sadie as she struggles to find the “right” friends.

I paired the physical book with the audiobook. Sara Matsui-Colby is a new narrator for me, and she did an excellent job portraying Sadie. You can genuinely sense Sadie’s fear and the sense of responsibility Sadie feels to prevent others from being harmed by the ghost.

Sadie Riviera is trying her best to be invisible at her new school. She knows any single sign that she has made a friend means that the ghost that has haunted her all her life will get angry. The last time that happened her best friend Anna didn't survive. But when the counselor and her worried father get involved she must join an afterschool club to seem normal. This leads her to meet Charlotte an over-friendly girl who loves comics. Sadie starts to slip and the usual lights start flickering and doors get slammed. She tries her best to dodge Charlotte and in doing so she meets Mal. Sadie finds that she can talk to Mal about her troubles and she surprisingly believes her. Mal seems to be the solution to her ghost problems as they disappear when she's around. But Mal has a bit of a jealous streak too. Sadie finds that the pranks Mal wants to do together become increasingly cruel. Sadie starts to pull away but Mal won't let her go that easily.

It Happened to Anna was so much fun with a fast-paced storyline that'll keep you on the edge of your seat! It was obvious what was going on with Sadie's new friend Mal but I think there was a reason it was written that way. You could see the pranks getting worse and worse. And Mal becoming more and more jealous. She was slowly revealing her true nature so by the end she looked monstrous. The vivid nightmares added in were truly terrifying! I think young horror lovers will love this one.

I also wanted to point out Sadie's father who didn't show up that much in the story but when he did you could tell how much he loved her. I couldn't imagine having to support your daughter whose friend just died but he was always there for her. I always like pointing out healthy parent-child relationships in middle grade.

It Happened to Anna was a winner in my book. This was a twisted tale of peer pressure and friendship gone wrong. It's a perfectly spooky cautionary tale reminding readers to choose your friends wisely!

It Happened to Anna is a book that touches a lot on toxic relationships and friendships, grief and social isolation. It is a middle grade so I did find the twist to be pretty predictable, but I think the foreshadowing would be great for middle grade readers. I like that it gives a very realistic look at how toxic friendships develop and I think for adult readers it can easily reflect an abusive relationship or grooming. There was some age-appropriate violence and self-harm that gave stakes to the story.

Our main character is depressed and understandably so as she has lost her mother and for her entire life has been isolated from friends due to the haunting. Even with a supportive system, she struggles to see how isolated she is becoming and the negative choices that she is making. I did like that the book tackles bullying and peer pressure in a way that I think is very current and speaks to some of the "prank" trends that are increasingly popular on social media.

I recommend if you enjoy middle grade horror!

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 I spent my childhood reading spooky stories that probably contributed to my sleepless nights (along with the ghosts of my haunted house but I will save that for another post). I have not picked up a book that has transported me back to my childhood reading days so vividly and wonderfully until I placed my hands on It Happened to Anna and had such a beautifully viscerally nostalgic reaction to this middle grade horror book!
Middle school is universally difficult, it becomes a whole new level of challenging with a spiteful, potentially murderous ghost hovering over every move you make. Friendships at this age are incredibly vulnerable and so hard to navigate and the juxtaposition with grief and ghosts from the other world highlight this perfectly. It Happened to Anna is a remarkably written middle grade horror novel and I can genuinely say it is the most terrifying one that I have read since I was eight years old! A truly bone-chilling, page turning good, old horror book that is worthy of all the praise!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tour Schedule:
https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2024/07/08/tour-schedule-it-happened-to-anna-by-tehlor-kay/

It has been a hot minute since I've read anything spooky and this is a great middle grade addition to that genre. Anna has been haunted by an evil ghost for as long as she can remember. Though I could see the twist coming from about the 20% mark, this is a propulsive novel that deals with grief, loneliness and bullying.

There wasn't ever a time in Sadie Rivera's life she didn't know she was haunted. The jealous ghost caused the death of her best friend, Anna, and now Sadie has to move to a new state, start a new school and is determined to not make any friends because she doesn't want anyone else to get hurt or killed by the ghost. Per her therapist and her father, Saide joins the Graphic Novel Club led by happy, kind Charlotte, but Sadie keeps herself as seperate as possible, spending her time in the club reading. Then Mal shows up, dark, brooding, but the ghost doesn't seem to care when Mal is around. No flickering lights, no cold spots, no minor accidents so Sadie decides to be Mal's best friend. Things don't go well. Mal is jealous and wants to keep Sadie from making other friends, including manipulating Sadie to pull crueler and crueler pranks on the kind class mates around her. Haunting, creepy, and filled with hnts of the ghost and the haunting to entice readers of scary stories. The book also tackles serious issues like anxiety, depression, parental abandonment, peer pressure and toxic friendships in a way that weaves itself into the ghost story.

I know this is middle grade and targeted towards middle grade age readers but I was thoroughly creeped out and scared reading this. I should have read it during the day because in bed alone at night was not great ha! I am so impressed with Tehlor Kay Mejia's ability to write across age groups because this tale about jealousy, guilt, shame and dark feelings was everything.

A dark and creepy ghost story. The ghost has never allowed Sadie Rivera to make friends. If Sadie tries to have a conversation with someone the ghost will know, and envelope her in feelings of cold and dread. Lights will go out, lamps will shatters, doors will slam. Then one day Sadie gets into a conversation with a girl at her school, and no scary supernatural things happen. Perhaps this once the ghost will allow Sadie to have a friend? Since the ghost killed Sadie's previous friend, she is afraid that her new friend will die too, but Sadie is so lonely, that is is hard to resist the possibility that she can finally have a friend. This was a supernatural exploration of toxic friendship. Advance copy read on NetGalley.

I'm going to start this review with a quick word about myself: I don't read a lot of juvenile books. As someone closer to 30 than I am to 20, I left that stage of my life behind some time ago and have absolutely no desire to repeat it. That said, I am also a librarian now. I deal with people of all ages every day and part of my job requires me to read widely so I can make suggestions to anyone that comes through my door.

With that in mind, I'm still a horror girl at heart so a lot of my juvenile choices are going to lean horror/mystery/thriller where I can get it. It Happened to Anna filled into that exact space for me.

In this book, a middle schooler named Sadie struggles with a secret - she has been haunted by a ghost her entire life, and that ghost has never let her make friends. The specter will break glass, turn out lights, and cause all kinds of mayhem every time Sadie even speaks to a new person. Last year, the ghost even caused the death of her best friend, Anna. But Mal, a girl at her new school, seems to be the one exception to the rule - when she is around, the ghost keeps quiet. But Mal has her own agenda, and Sadie quickly finds that her ghost might not be the only one with a jealous streak.

This book was a good time. It is written for the middle-grade audience, making it a quick read that doesn't require a ton of brain power or a dictionary to get through (I'm looking at you, Sanderson). The characters feel authentically like middle schoolers, especially in their desire to take on the world's evils alone. I loved the relationship between Sadie and her dad specifically because it feels so much like a usual relationship between a 11-14-year-old and their parent - love, but also the desire to distance themselves. Respect, but also that feeling of, "They just don't understand". I remember feeling that way when I was a kid, and I'm sure many children reading this will empathize with Sadie, too.

I will admit that I guessed the twist pretty early on. [That said, I just got through reading a different book where the character was a ghost the whole time, so I feel like my brain was already poised to make that jump. Even though I knew what was happening, though, I loved the way the story built upon itself and how the stakes just got higher and higher as the relationship between Sadie and Mal escalated.

The biggest strength of the book, for me, was the conclusion. Often with middle-grade titles, I find the "big showdown" at the end of the book to be messy and confusing. There's often a lot happening at once and the action gets chaotic. In this book, though, the small number of characters involved in the climax helped to streamline it and make it believable. On top of that, the character growth that we get to see in Sadie by the end is a treat and hopefully will help young readers that may be putting themselves under a lot of pressure to see that holding up the universe doesn't have to be a solo project.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Press for allowing me access to this book. The cover is what pulled me in and the story kept me there.

It Happened to Anna is middle grade chiller by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Poor Sadie Rivera has been stalked by a jealous ghost for as long as she can remember. After the ghost kills Sophie’s best friend Anna, her father moves them to his small hometown in Idaho, but the ghost only follows, creating havoc whenever Sophie attempts to build relationships.

Overwhelmed with guilt and loneliness, Sadie rejects all attempts at friendships by well meaning classmates…until she meets a super cool girl named Mal.

While the paranormal activity dies down with Mal in the picture, Sadie has a new problem. Mal, living up to her name, loves to terrify the kids at school with increasingly grotesque pranks and she is dragging poor Sadie along with her.

For middle grade readers who love to be freaked out and creeped out, this is a captivating tale of jealousy and revenge.

*4.5 Stars*

Sadie has been haunted her entire life. Her ghost doesn't want her to get close to anyone and even killed her best friend Anna. But Sadie can't tell anyone until she does. But is that friendship really what she wants?

I really liked this book. It was a very fast read that touched on very interesting subjects. I like how it was horror but also spoke of everyday life stuff. I liked the take on friendship and how it's not always what we signed up for. I found Sadie to be a very interesting main character and I loved getting to know her throughout this book. I did see the main twist coming a mile away but I didn't mind. I felt for Sadie from beginning to end and would definitely recommend this to a lot of people, no matter their age.

Sadie has been plagued by a jealous, vengeful ghost since she was a young child in Arizona. Her mother left years ago, and she and her father have moved back to his hometown in Idaho after the ghost caused the death of her best friend, Anna. Now, she is treading carefully, keeping to herself, and not making the mistake of befriending anyone else and incurring the ghost's wrath. When Charlotte, and exuberant graphic novel fan, talks to her, the lights flicker menacingly, and when Sadie attends the graphic novel club and talks to some of the members, further electric problems cause the club to let out early. While she's waiting for her father, she is approached by Mal, a waif like student with white blonde hair. Mal won't give up talking to her, so Sadie finally tells her the truth about the ghost... and Mal believes her. Not only that, but talking to Mal doesn't seem to rile up any evil forces. Relieved to finally have a friend, Sadie goes along with any activity Mal wants to do, like hanging out in the cemetery. Mal has an odd life; her overprotective, hard working parents insist that a nanny picks her up for lunch, she's not allowed to participate in any groups, but she is given the freedome to hang out after school. When Mal wants to pull some pranks like locking Ryder in the bathroom and shutting off the lights, dumping red Kool Aid "blood" on Marty's locker, or filling a back pack with worms and dirt, Sadie goes along with it even though the pranks make her uncomfortable. Mal even coerces Sadie into scratching an "M" into her ankle while Mal scratches an "S" into her own. When Mal wants to catch a rat and put it in Kelsey's desk (Sadie suspects that Mal knows Kelsey has been nice to her), Sadie helps, but regrets it at the last minute and lets the teacher know before Kelsey opens her desk. Sadie is so distraught that she stays home from school for several days, and when she returns, she finds out that Kelsey's cat was killed and left on the family's porch. When she talks to Mal, she denies any involvement and is nicer to Sadie. Sadie has been having nightmares about Anna and other students in distress, so she's relieved that her one friendship is still strong. When Mal wants to go out at midnight to an abandoned well, this doesn't seem like a great plan, and when Sadie tries to back out because she has also been invited to Charlotte's birthday party, Mal is not happy but says it's okay. When Sadie's father gets a call that Charlotte is missing, Sadie knows exactly where Charlotte is. She runs away, and finds Mal and Charlotte at the well. Mal seems intent on killing Charlotte, but Sadie manages to rescue her. Creepy secrets emerge, and Sadie, who has suffered for years, resigns herself to her own death. Will the ghost be victorious after all?
Strengths: Mejia does an excellent job at dialing right in to middle grade fears. What's worse than having no friends? Having a vengeful ghost stalking you and threatening anyone who wants to BE your friend, of course. Not only that, but we've got the added tension of a friend who is pressuring Sadie to do things that she knows is wrong. Mal is elusive, and there are clues all along about her true nature that savvy readers will pick up, but the suspense is well developed and keeps the story very taut. We don't see a whole lot of Sadie's father, even though he is involved in talking to her teachers, getting her counseling, and wanting to know her whereabouts... sometimes. This seems very realistic. Charlotte is a great character, and she is very understanding about Sadie's situation, continuing to be friendly while not pushing her, and being a fantastic friend in the end. There are just enough classmates and staff members to round out the story, including Charlotte's friend Corey, who is nonbinary, and the counselor Mrs. Fitz, who gives Sadie good advice without asking too many questions. I enjoyed this one a lot, and am not surprised that Ms. Mejia found this too scary to work on at night!
Weaknesses: While I liked the explanation of why the mother left, I could have used more information about how exactly the ghost became attached to Sadie and also what happened to Anna. The explanation was there, but could have been a little clearer, and maybe have been delivered a little earlier in the story. It's a hard thing to balance; explanations and murderous ghosts!
What I really think: Definitely purchasing two copies, and this will be an enormous hit with fans of Dawson's Mine, Ford's The Lonely Ghost, and Currie's The Girl in White. Murderous ghosts really are the sweet spot for middle grade horror, and working in friend drama is definitely brilliant!

Thank you to NetGalley for approving my request for the eARC, I couldn't wait to read it.

This book grabbed my attention right away - spooky in the best way, where you feel just a bit uneasy through the whole story, but not so creeped out that you can't sleep.

The story follows Sadie, who is the new girl and school and feels invisible -- which is the goal all along. She wouldn't want anyone to notice her, or, heaven forbid, try to befriend her. If they did, they might also fall victim to the jealous ghost that killed her former best friend. Her plan of living a life reserved to the shadows is foiled by her well meaning father and school counselor 'volunteer' her to join the graphic novel club.

Sadie will eventually cross paths with Mal, a jealous and overbearing friend that both bullies and encourages Sadie to bully others - pulling a series of progressively cringey pranks on her classmates.

While there are some predictable plot lines, it is nothing outside of the expectation of what you want from a horror novel. There was a scene or two where I wasn't convinced of Sadie's decision making or thought process, but it wasn't enough for me to rate the book anything less than a 4.5.

There is so much that the author does well - I had to remind myself that Sadie was actually bullying her classmates, but I was inside her head so much while she rationalized her actions that I nearly forgot that making your classmates squeal isn't exactly a credit to humanity. I felt that many could identify with having a friend that you get enraptured by so quickly that you are blinded to their toxic behavior, until it is so late in the game you don't feel you can do much about it.

Mejia does an amazing job of capturing the mind of an anxious and uncertain tweenager. I haven't read this author before, but I'm sure to read more of their work after being introduced with this piece.

For fans of: The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura,