Bratton’s brisk debut novella takes readers on a suspenseful journey involving a haunted mirror. Recent high school graduate Jamie, at home alone, is spooked at 3:33 p.m. when her front door motion sensor goes off but no one is there. She recalls that just before she crashed her car a few weeks before, she saw the face of Mary Montgomery, a missing 13-year-old girl, in her rearview mirror at 3:33 a.m. Jamie and her ex-boyfriend, Mark, visit Mary’s classmate Beth and discover she owns a mirror that Jamie’s parents sold years ago. Then, at 3:33, a spectral hand reaches from the mirror and grabs Beth. After talking with Sheriff King, who turns out to be an expert in the occult and links the mirror to another long-ago disappearance, Jamie and Mark deduce that Mary was drawn into another dimension through the mirror—and there might still be time to rescue her.

Bratton capably intertwines the mirror-as-portal concept with the Bloody Mary urban legend, grounding it in Beth’s use of "Bloody Mary" to taunt Mary after she gets her first period. Jamie’s eerie family history, including connections to the time 3:33, adds suspense to the tension-filled novel. Mark and Jamie’s sleuthing efforts go improbably smoothly, from the sheriff’s ready acceptance of the supernatural to clues and specters appearing as they’re needed; older teen readers may balk at the ease with which answers turn up. However, this lack of obstacles lets the story fly by.

The conclusion of the investigation is somewhat diminished by Jamie fainting at a crucial moment and only learning afterward what transpired, but an eerie final page will leave the reader with chills. A swift pace and genuinely spooky atmosphere are the high points of this suburban ghost story.

Takeaway: This eerie novella and its smart adolescent sleuths will appeal to younger teen fans of spooky stories.

Great for fans of R.L. Stine’s The Betrayal, S.A. Hunter’s Scary Mary.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B