the screaming staircase by jonathan stroud

They take the job on with tremendous vigor and passion. Together, Lucy and her friends and colleagues take on cases but run into trouble.Įventually, Lucy, George, and Lockwood are hired to investigate the Combe Carey Hall, which is one of the most haunted houses in all of the United Kingdom.

They enlist the help of several people, including a young man named George, who Lucy takes a liking to. Their goal in creating the agency is to create a business run solely by children they succeed in doing so. One of those agencies is called Lockwood and Co., which was created by Lucy and a man named Anthony Lockwood. Although there are many supernatural beings, there are more agencies that exist that are willing to take them on. Each agency is in fierce competition with the other for business around the city. Over time, more and more agencies begin to pop up which aim to rid London of the scourge of supernatural beings. These psychic abilities are the only things that can destroy those supernatural beings, beings that pose people tremendous danger. Only young people, as it turns out, can battle supernatural forces because they are the only ones with psychic abilities. There are groups and agencies around the city whose sole focus is to eradicate supernatural forces. During 'the problems,' various kinds of ghosts, haunts, and specters pop up all over the city during the night. 'The problems' involve the supernatural world rearing its ugly and demonic head to bother and violently assault people all across the city. The Screaming Staircase is set in modern-day London, where what Stroud calls 'the problems' have begun. Taken together, the themes above create tremendous tension and provide the novel with complexity, and compelling characters and story. Any one of these themes would make The Screaming Staircase an engaging and interesting book. It also explores themes of dealing with your mistakes, working together to solve mysteries, and just how difficult (and rewarding) running a business is. Thematically, The Screaming Staircase explores the damaging effects of the supernatural, the power and importance of friendship, and the devastating effects violence could have on you. Stroud's novel assumes that its readers are intelligent and mature enough to understand an adult story about children who are put into a dangerous situation in which their lives are frequently threatened by supernatural beings. The Screaming Staircaseis one of the most thematically complex books written by young adults in the past twenty-five years.

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The screaming staircase by jonathan stroud