Review: The Boy at the Window

The Boy at the Window is a spine-tingling, poignant gothic ghost story which held me utterly entranced from the opening line:

I first saw the ghost on a cold autumn night.

Whilst the heavy, thick fog surrounding Hugo’s home might play tricks on the imagination, Hugo is convinced that what he sees at the window is real – a real ghost boy!

Hugo lives with his mother and housekeeper after having been sent home from boarding school due to an illness. His father has been missing for over a year since the end of the war but his mother still waits for him to return home despite no news of his survival. His mother has withdrawn in to a world of her own, haunted by the loss of her husband yet unable to accept that he is gone. When a telegram arrives, she becomes even more unwell …

When Hugo continues to see the ghost boy with his haunted, hollow eyes, he has a disturbing realisation, and wonders what would happen if he lets the boy inside …

What a perfect ghost story: atmospheric, eerie and haunting. The sense of foreboding is palpable and gives the story an unsettling feeling as the thick, lingering fog clings to the house. I really liked the dual role played by the fog as its impact is felt both inside and outside the house. The use of both sounds and silences really builds the tension as do some brilliant cliffhanger chapter endings. I could really feel Hugo’s fear, loneliness and sense of isolation as his mother becomes more and more withdrawn from reality and lost from her son. The genius of this book is that it can be enjoyed as an eerie, gripping ghost story with an incredible twist by readers at the upper end of Key Stage 2, but can also be studied well in to Key Stage 3 as a masterpiece in the gothic genre with opportunities to discuss the psychology of ghost stories.

The illustrations are absolutely perfect from the swirl of fog drifting along the bottom of each page to the use of light and dark within the images to create a sense of things hidden and revealed.

A thought-provoking, powerful and haunting ghost story that will linger long after it has played its last trick … just incredible!

Thank you to Barrington Stoke for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is published by the wonderful Barrington Stoke who publish dyslexia-friendly, super-readable and accessible books for children of all ages. This is suitable for 9+ with a reading age of 8.