Deep and Dark and Dangerous (A Ghost Story) by Mary Downing Hahn

Deep and Dark and Dangerous (A Ghost Story) Reviews

• 
  Melanie (TBR and Beyond)

  “The lake's deep...and dark...and dangerous.”
  
  You can find this review and all of my other reviews at
  Novel Descent Thanks for the support!
  
  I originally rated this three stars but after rowing it over in my mind I had to drop this one down to one star. There was some very problematic issues with the characters and there was one sentence in the book that made my mouth drop, due to racism.
  
  Deep and Dark and Dangerous is about a young girl who is 13 who goes to stay with her aunt and her little cousin for the summer at a family summer home. Her aunt and her siblings haven't been to the house since they were little and they avoid all questions about why they won't go to the house. As soon as they arrive at the summer home another young girl named Sissy starts turning up out of nowhere and wanting to play. This puts the girls in numerous awkward or dangerous situations, not to mention their moods change when they are around her.
  
  Ok, I might as well address the elephant in the room right away. Was this book racist? Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say it was a racist book but I would say there was a very good example of casual racism within it. At one point the girls are playing on the beach and Sissy comes up behind them, the girls remark how they did not hear her coming. Her response is and I quote, "I sneaked up on you, I'm as quiet as an Indian." (It was on page 76 in my edition, incase you want to look at it for yourself.)
  
  Now let's get into why this is so problematic. Obviously the comment in itself is pretty racist, referring to the idea that Indians are sneaky. Next, there is NO reason for the comment. This is probably the biggest issue about this. The character is not racist, there is no signs, other than that one throw-a-way comment that they are racist. There is nothing about race in the book and it had nothing to do with anything that was going on. Do I think the author was racist? I really can't answer that question because I haven't read enough of her work and in the other book I read I didn't particularly notice anything. When I first read the sentence that I'm referring to, I kind of slowly stopped and thought, "there is no way I just read that." So, I read it over a few times, looked for some way that I could explain away the racism then I shrugged and figured that this must be a book of its era. I guessed this book to be written maybe in the 50s-70s at the latest. It read like an older book and the cover suggested it as well, so I checked the year. Wrong again, it was published in 2007 *bangs head on desk* How it got past the editors I'll never know. There is just no excuse in the year 2007 to have such stereotypical racism in a book. I personally would have an issue allowing children I know to read this without proper context. It is normalizing racism. Not a good thing in my book. I know some people may roll their eyes at the amount of content I'm writing on this, but I think it's important that we talk about these things when we see them.
  
  Another huge issue with this book is the characters. None of them are particularly likeable. The protagonist isn't awful but there's nothing special about her, the little girl she babysits for is one of the most annoying children I have read about in a long time and Sissy (the mysterious girl) is just a complete monster of a character, not in a good way. The adults are harsh, and when they have their more tender moments it's still hard not to think of them as complete batshit crazy morons. I just couldn't get on board with any of them.
  
  Is there anything really positive about this book? I thought I liked it at first but I realized I liked the feeling of it. It felt like an older story and it gave me a cozy feeling. I was letting a lot of things slide because of that.
  
  I did read Mary Downing Hahn' more known book Wait Till Helen Comes and enjoyed it much more. I will read more of her books and hope that I do not come into these issues again. I can't in my right mind recommend a book like this though.
• 
  Kaitlyn

  Deep and Dark and Dangerous
  By: Mary Downing Hahn
  Review By: Kaitlyn
  
  Have you ever read something that was so deep and dark and dangerous, as this book, Deep and Dark and Dangerous? Author Mary Downing Hahn wrote this spectacular, wonderful, amazing ghost adventure!
  Some important character is this story is:
  
  *Dulcie
  *Ali
  *Sissy
  *Emma
  *Mom
  
  Ali discovers an old, old photo of three little girls sitting on a bench. Ali knows one is her Aunt Dulcie and the other is her mom, but she is puzzled by the third girl sitting next to them. Her mom and Dulcie won’t tell her and soon she is suspicious!
  Later Ali and Emma meet Sissy. Sissy seems to know who this girl is, but won’t tell them who it really is.
  Lastly Sissy is trying to tell Emma and Ali something, but what. This is a very important question in this mind-boggling ghost mystery!
  
• 
  Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)

  4.0 Stars
  This was a really good middle grade book that blended a good mystery into a horror story. I appreciated the representation of the depressed parent which is something I rarely see in stories. This is my second time reading this author and I'd definitely like to read more of her work. She is an excellent storyteller.
• 
  L.E. Fidler

  blech.
  
  so, here is this book in a nutshell:
  
  
  claire: no, you can't go to the beach house! it's bad! water is bad! everything is bad! ouch! my head hurts!
  ali: mom, you're, like, soooo over-protective!
  pete: ali, you can go!
  dulcie: ali, you will serve as my 13yr old au pair all summer. in return, you will have all your emotional needs ignored and i will have all the time in the world to paint creepy pictures of the lake in my studio.
  emma: i'm lonely!
  sissy: i'm cold and lonely. and dead. come play with me. forever, and ever, and ever.
  ali: aunt dulcie, is there something you want to tell us?
  dulcie: no! you ingrate! how dare you?!?!
  ali: guess i'll go read [To Kill a Mockingbird]
  sissy: bury me or else!
  ali: i think we should do what she says. but first, let me yell at her like i'm 7 and storm off like i'm 17.
  dulcie: you rotten brat! how dare you!!!
  emma: i'm lonely!
  sissy: i just want a friend. and a funeral. is that too much to ask? oh, hey, a canoe!
  ali: um...i really think we should tell someone about this deep dark secret you've been harboring for decades...
  dulcie: fine. i'll call the police. and the newspapers. and my lawyer. and your mother.
  sissy: yay! i'm finally free!
  dulcie: yay! i'm finally free!
  claire: yay! i'm finally free!
  emma: i'm still lonely.
  
  
  blech.
  
  there's virtually no mystery, the adults are all one-dimensional, the children are barely 2-d, and most of the characters are just so whiny or awful to like. what's up with parents being completely irrational and horrible people in these books? troubled, sure, that's forgivable, but irrevocably broken and cruel is problematic.
  
• 
  Jennifer

  It is creepy!!!!!!! But a great book about friendship and is very mystrious.
• 
  Sammy

  I truly loved and enjoyed this book if you are looking for a great book READ THIS!!!!!
• 
  Jackie "the Librarian"

  Ali is invited to spend the summer at the family’s old cottage up in Maine, watching her four-year-old niece Emma for her aunt Dulcie. But Ali’s mom is dead against it, saying the lake is too dangerous, and that it’s a dark and rainy place to have a miserable summer. She refuses to talk about her own childhood there, or who the third girl in the old photo Ali finds of her mom and Dulcie as kids at the lake.
  But Dulcie and Ali wear her down, and Ali goes off to Maine, where she finds her mother was right. The weather is rainy, cold and depressing. But worse than that is Sissy, a local girl who influences Emma into bratty, and risky, behavior. Sissy hints that she knows all about the girl in the photo, and what happened years ago that no one else will talk about, but Ali doesn’t trust her.
  Creepy and very dark, the atmosphere of dread in this book seems to poison the behavior of the characters. Elements such as an old doll and mossy tombstones heighten the tension along the way to the inevitable conclusion. You may not have fun reading this, but you will get chills.
• 
  Angie

  So Far, I've Read That A Girl Name Ali Was looking Through Her Dead Grandmas Stuff, And Found A Book To Read, She Was Flipping Through the Book And Found A Picture That Was Torn. She Saw That Her Mom Claire And Her Aunt Dulcie. She Saw A Arm Lying On Her Aunt Dulcie's Shoulder, And Wondered Who It Was. She Looked On the Back To Find Names, She Saw Her Mom's Name, Claire, Her Aunt's Name, Dulcie, And She Saw A Letter T. Like The Rest Of The Body Was Torn, The Name Was To. She Asks Her Mom Who It Is, But She Won't Tell. She Just Says That She Doesn't Remember Another Girl, It Was Always Just Her And Dulcie. She Would Have Called Her Aunt, But Her Mom Would Have Seen The Number On the Phone Bill And Ask Why She Called Her And What They Talked About. Well, That's All! ^-^
• 
  Jen

  What a perfect book to read on the heels of reading Violet by Scott Thomas! This book could have easily been his inspiration behind writing Violet.
  
  Deep and Dark and Dangerous is a middle grade ghost story. I really enjoyed the ghosty bits of this one. It's a great book for young horror lovers. I would have loved it back in my Lois Duncan days!
  
  Unfortunately, the characters didn't always work well for me. The main character is Ali, and she often flipped from being mature to acting like a young child. This is probably true to life, but I think middle grade readers would appreciate spending time with her more than I did. I didn't find the 6 year old character to be very realistic either, but I'm not exactly the intended audience.
  
  If you are looking for a spooky story set on the lake, Deep and Dark and Dangerous is a quick (and younger) ghostly tale.
• 
  Andreia Fernandes

  More suited for young audiences - 12-year-olds maybe...
• 
  Eugene

  A surprisingly disappointing entry from a normally reliable author. It seems a rewrite of a her wonderful
  Wait Till Helen Comes, with many of the same tropes. But the protagonist is paper-thin, nothing much to her to appeal, and the story relies on the Stupidity Plot Drive. A story that is advanced only by the hero's incapacity to think of the obvious solution is painful. It's one thing when a thirteen year-old girl lets herself be putty in a malicious eleven year-old's hands. Such things happen, but, unless I have real reason to want to sympathize with the older girl, it does raise the question--so, would this ghost be dangerous if confronted with a mildly competent girl? Being manipulated by unbridled malice is one thing, but not knowing to hold tightly to her 4 year-old cousin the second time the ghost tells her to do something dangerous; not thinking to bodily lift the 4 year-old out of the canoe when she knows the ghost intends to sink her... this is a level of incompetence that strains credibility.
  
  Otherwise, both the supporting characters undergo radical shifts of mood, from loving devotion to malicious attack, so extreme I was forced to believe they were being possessed by the ghost. Then the protagonist suddenly changes her mind about the ghost and is her best friend, for no discernible reason. The story feels long and drawn out, having its climax near the middle, and then meandering around the relationships of these incomprehensible characters. It's wordy, too. When it was time to say, "It said 'Theresa,'" because the reader already knows, instead we get: "Then I saw the name. Five more sentences. I couldn't believe it. More words. It was the girl from the canoe, the girl who'd been bothering us all this time, the girl you knew from the get-go was the ghost, Theresa."
  
  In "Wait Till Helen Comes" Hahn deftly managed the push and pull of the mean girl, the discovery of the truth, and the transition of the relationship from fear and rejection to compassion. Read that and skip this.
• 
  Tina

  This book was a wonderful story. There was so much that you could get from it. There was happiness, horror, and laughter all mixed in. Also some sadness. The creepiness of the story brought among the main suspense of the story along with the mystery of the new characters and new conflicts. During some times i felt like popping into the book and dealing with the situations myself since i felt they were not strongly dealt with although that was probably the author's point to make sure the story continues at a fast pace. The story more than being a scare your socks of story is a delicate horror story woven to expose the personality of Sassy and how the book can be scary even without monsters, and goblins and etc. The book wasn't at all predictable and even left a couple of red herrings. I loved the ending. Peace and happiness are two good ways to end a story based on my opinion and Mary Downing Hahn incorporated both those elements into the ending of the story which even brought an extent of tears to my eyes. A book I recommend to all for its uniqueness and plot. Enjoy!!
• 
  Ari

  This story was alright. And the moment that Sissy came into the picture, I had already figured everything out, but I read the rest of the story because...why not.
  
  There was enough tension and darkness to make the book not be a waste of time. I wouldn't say that it was creepy, precisely, but I suppose that it had its threatening moments--such as the time when Sissy takes them on the canoe, or Ali comes across the memorial.
  
  Emma was the best thing in the story, and sometimes proved to be even more intelligent than the grown ups.
  
  It's an okay book to pass a few hours with and disconnect.
• 
  Kelsea Yu

  This was my first Mary Downing Hahn book and I found it quite enjoyable! The plot line could be considered predictable (no major plot twists), though it's MG so that's not really unusual for the category. The characters were well written - the MC's situation is frustrating at many points throughout, but in the way that it's frustrating to be a 13-year-old. The story kept my interest the entire time. The audiobook narration was decent, if a bit dramatized. Definitely one to consider reading if you're looking for an interesting ghost story.
• 
  Berfin Kanat

  Klişe bir Amerikan filmi gibi. Yine de sonlarına doğru kendine bağlıyor, hayalet hikayesi sevenler olarak kendi dilimizde çok fazla seçeneğimiz yok o yüzden denk gelirseniz okuyun derim.
• 
  Michelle

  YA book. I've now read several from this author. Love her books. They're a little on the creepy side. I think I would of been freaked out if I read this when I was a kid.
• 
  Andrea Vazquez

  Deep and Dark and Dangerous is fiction and mystery is a really good book and the story takes place in Main.
  
  The main character Ali is a young girl who lives her mom and dad but her mom has so issues she gets upset about everything and she gets this migraines and she is always locked up in her room when she has the migraines. her dad is very nice and he is a hardworking man who loves ali very much. One day when Ali was looking around in the attic she finds this old picture and she recognizes her mom Claire and her aunt Dulcie when they were kids but also she noticed that there was another girl to the other side of her mom but that part of the picture was torn and all she could see was part of the hand and in the back the letter T. Ali then went to her mom and ask her who was the girl that was torn out of the picture but her mom got mad at her and said she didn't know and when Ali told her the first letter of the girl's name her mom said she didn't knew anyone with the name that started with a T. Days later her aunt came over and ask Ali to go with her to the lake where she and her mom just to go in the summer when they were little Ali was so exited and she really wanted to go. She was also going to babysit her little cousin Emma but when she ask her mom to let her go she refused to let her go and then she ask her dad and he said it was ok with him so they convinced her mother to let her go so she finally decided that she could go. When they got to the lake they settle in and while her aunt paint it in her studio she and Emma would play around and then Ali would read to Emma. one day Ali and Emma were playing outside in the lake when they saw this girl sitting in a rock so they went to talk to her and she told them her name was sissy. Sissy was a mean selfish girl at first she was nice to Emma and Ali but then she would get mean with then she was very mysterious. Sissy then became a bad influence for Emma because since she started to hangout with Sissy, Emma started to change she wasn't the nice girl anymore she would blame Ali for Everything and say that Ali wanted to hurt her and that she was mean to her. Even though Ali and her aunt try to keep her away from Sissy, Emma still try to get near her and still hangout with her and play with her. The most weirdest thing about Sissy was that she started talking about a girl named Teresa who drawn in the very same lake when Ali's aunt and mom just to come here in the summers. At first Ali though that Sissy was trying to scared her with that story but later on in the book Eli finds out who really is Sissy and what she wanted. to find out happen next you need to read the book.
• 
  Lauren Vallee

  This book is very good, one of my new favorites. It's not a very long read, but the amount of intriguing detail makes up for its length. The main character Alison is really curious and smart, which helps her figure out exactly what she needs to know about a mystery trouble maker she runs into at her favorite cabin in the Maine woods. The best part of this book, in my opinion, is the huge plot twist. I like it because it is in the middle of the plot, and is explained very well up until the end of the book.
• 
  Kelli Green

  I really enjoyed this book. I read it to my middle school class and though we very quickly (as in the first couple of chapters) figured out what most of the "twist" would be, we still kept reading to see how it would all play out. We really enjoyed it, except we did feel like the ending should have been a little different somehow, but hey that's life :)
• 
  Abbigayle Grace

  Lovely, inspiring chiller! Mary Downing Hahn is probably my favorite ghost story author :)
• 
  Samantha

  I thought this was a good, quick middle grades horror novel/ghost story. Was it predictable? Sure it was, but would I have loved it if I was in 4th grade or 5th grade? You bet I would have! This was the kind of thing I loved as a kid. It's a good mysterious ghost story with some dark elements that isn't too scary but just spooky enough.
• 
  Piepie | The Napping Bibliophile

  This was a darkly chilling ghost story that would be perfect to read during a cold, rainy evening in Maine. You can see trademarks that MDH has used in other books: cemeteries, ghost children, dolls... but this book was still enjoyable to read.
• 
  Stacie N

  "That lake is deep and dark and dangerous..."
  
  Suspenseful and eerie, Deep and Dark and Dangerous will surely leave you on edge.
  Thirteen year old Ali finds an old photo of her mother, Claire, and Aunt Dulcie at Gull Cottage, their lake house...but there's another girl in the photo that was ripped out, merely left with the letter "T". Dulcie and Claire act like there never was a "T", but Ali knows something's up, so when overprotective Claire finally allows Ali to go to Gull Cottage with Dulcie and Emma, Claire's 5 year old niece, Ali is determined to find out more about "T" who they discover is "Teresa". But when the vandalism of Dulcie's art studio and the appearance of Sissy, a mean, spiteful girl determined to ruin Ali's summer and other strange events occur, Ali can't help but wonder who Teresa is. But the secrets may lie at the bottom of the deep, dark and dangerous lake.
  In the middle of the book, Emma would do everything Sissy told her to and was bullying her cousin, but Ali would still stand up for Emma. "'You're not fun, you're just a dumb copycat'" Sissy said in the book to Emma and Ali would come rushing to Emma's defense. I think it was really nice of Ali to stand up for Emma despite what she said to her earlier, but I probably wouldn't have done the same thing.
  In Deep and Dark and Dangerous, Ali stood up for Emma when Sissy repeatedly dunked Emma's head in the lake. That reminded me of the time I stood up for my sister at my cousin's birthday party when we were little kids. A boy a year older than her kicked her, and I marched straight up to him and screamed "Nobody kicks my sister!" After that, he made sure to steer clear of us.
  This book taught me that everything is not what it seems and that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
  Deep and Dark and Dangerous would be the best book I've read so far this year because it had me turning pages late at night. I really enjoyed how the author wrote this book; they added a few suspenseful details in each chapter that make you slowly grow more on edge. Also, another thing this book did was that it hooked me from the very beginning. I couldn't put it down and I’m sure you won’t be able to as well. I recommend this to readers 10 and up that are looking for a suspensful, not to scary story to read.
  
• 
  Bridgette Ramsey

  A picture from the past will get you wondering. If you did not know the people in it you would ask yourself, “who are these people?” You would also ask “What are they doing?” You may also ask “Where are they at?” Photographs get you thinking and wondering. That is exactly what happened to Ali in the story Deep and Dark and Dangerous. Mary Downing Hahn’s Deep and Dark and Dangerous amazed me with its eerie style and suspenseful story.
  
  The theme of the book is friendship and the truth. It teaches you that you can find friendship in the strangest of places. It also teaches you that with the truth everything is more simple. Lies just make confusion and anger. I love how Hahn always leaves you in suspense and thinking. Also, Hahn makes her characters very believable. Ali is exactly what you would think a thirteen-year-old would act. The story is set on a lake, in a lake house during Ali’s summer vacation.
  
  In Deep and Dark and Dangerous it all started with Ali finding an old photograph in an old book she found in the attic. She recognizes two people but the third person is cut out. The two she recognizes are her aunt and her mother. All Ali could make out was long hair and an arm. From that she could tell it was a girl. On the back of the photograph it said “Gull Cottage, 1977. Dulcie, Claire, and T-.” Ali wanted to find out who this ripped out girl was, and why she had been ripped out. Ali could not stop thinking about this “T-” girl. She did not know what she was getting herself into.
  
  Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn is a great book and I recommend this book to anyone who likes books that keeps you in suspense and whoever loves to try to solve mysteries. This book does not just tell a story but you feel as if you are personally in the story.
  
• 
  Jiayun Chen

  This book, I founded on the store bookshelf, I was on sale and it was a horror story, thus I brought it. Ali, a girl who had a huge curiosity of figuring out the secret behind the ripped photo. This was a secret her mother and aunt both hold, they were taking a photo with this other girl. T…? Determined to know Ali risk her life by going to this place where her mother and her aunt used to visit when they are kids. Two months was all she had, to figure out the third person in the photo. Before she realizes, weird things are happening. Her cousin's continuous nightmares of bones beneath the wide lake and her mysterious friend, Sissy they met. She seen to contain a secret as well, will she be the key to all her questions?
  Conflict:
  Teresa or sissy, does it matter? Sissy appears out in thin air and disappears in the matter of milliseconds, her constant spirit bothers Ali and her cousin, Emma when they are out of town for their summer vacation. Summer was suppose to be fun for them right, but they soon figure out Emma's first real friend was a ghost who wanted the truth. The secret between her mother and her aunt was suppose to be known, but they kept it as a secret, a secret that causes all the problems. For example, when suddenly there's a note saying, "'I'm watching you tell the truth or else" (Hahn 80).As Sissy desperately wanted the truth to be revealed, Ali and Emma helped her on the way. They two were mini- versions of their mother. After many attempts, at last sissy will finally rest in peace. "'In Memory of Our Beloved Daughter and Sister Teresa Abbott. May her soul rise from the deep and be at peace" (Hahn 123). Finally Ali and Emma can enjoy their summer together once again without the distraction of sissy, they are all in peace.
  
• 
  Amber J

  13 year old Ali has been invited by her aunt to spend the summer with her and her 5 year old daughter Emma at a cottage by a lake in Maine. Although her mother is reluctant to let her go, she eventually agrees. Ali keeps finding evidence of a little girl who was most likely her mom and aunt's friend and the only hint to her name is T from a torn photograph. But when she asks her mom and then her aunt about her. They both claim to have no memory of another girl. But Ali suspects they may not be telling the truth.

  
  

  Ali's job is to babysit her younger cousin when your aunt is in her studio painting. A job Ali loves and she loves spending time with her cousin. A few days in they run into another little girl about 10 years old and her name is Sissy. Emma immediately wants to be Sissy's friend and starts acting just like her. Problem is Sissy acts like a brat and can be pretty mean at times. Ali tries to get more info out of Sissy about herself so she can find her parents and get Sissy to leave them be. But Sissy is secretive, sneaky, and possibly more than she appears to be. .

  
  

  It was cute ghost story. Spooky but not super scary. It had a happy ending too. I can see older children and younger teens really enjoying this story. There really is nothing about this book that I think is bad or inappropriate for the age of children capable of reading it. And while I was certainly to old for this particular story, even I found it to be entertaining. This the second book I have read by Mary Downing Hahn, and think she does a great job the audience she target. Books sometimes makes me the Goosebumps, but not in a copycat sense. She has her own originality to her work