Character Development: ☆☆☆
"Riz Choudhry lives for two things: movies and anything spooky. His dad? Not so much. While Riz dreams of filmmaking and jump scares, his father dreams of Riz going to med school or law school—and neither one includes ghosts.
But the film club is Riz’s safe haven, a place where other supernatural-obsessed first-gen kids swap scary stories from their cultures. So, when the group decides to film a documentary about the creepy old mansion in town, Riz is all in. But there’s a problem. His dad wants Riz to quit the club. AND the building is about to be demolished. Now Riz and his friends must use the power of filmmaking to save the mansion…before it vanishes forever."
This graphic novel is beautifully illustrated, and Riz really tugged at my heart. I thought his frustration with his dad and going back and forth at school between wanting to stand up for himself and wanting his friends to just let things go felt very realistic and human, and the way his connection with his dad started to slowly get stronger through things like bonding over Pakistani ghost stories was very sweet (even though those stories would have creeped me out so hard. I am a baby.)
My one complaint is how short it felt, because I was enjoying it so much that then I was like oh...it's over? That said, for kids I think it's a great pace and will keep them invested all the way to the last page, so I'm going to have to just deal with wanting more for their sakes since, you know...it's written for them and not me. I think kids will love all the spooky stories and the mystery of what's going on with the ghosts in the mansion, and I predict this being a hot commodity when I add it to my library!
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