"The Haunting of the Antique Brooch" by Hina Ansari is a delightful and spooky read that had me hooked from the start. This cosy mystery with a supernatural twist takes you on a thrilling journey of discovery and intrigue. Ansari's storytelling is engaging, and her characters are both relatable and charming. If you enjoy a mix of mystery and the paranormal, this book is a perfect choice. It kept me entertained and guessing until the very end, and I couldn't have asked for a better read to curl up with on a chilly evening.

Great to see a diverse YA horror that actually delivers on the creep factor! We have a lot of story beats that involve the religious aspects of Islam and how the characters identify within the LGBTIA+ community which is fantastic - and we also have a pretty decent ghost story as well
3.5 stars!

This was just an OK read for me. I liked the diverse cast of characters but the mystery was not very scary. Roni and her best friend Matty are having fun investigating haunted houses. To their surprise one of the houses is really haunted and the spirit follows them home. There were no real surprises or suspense. Overall it was just a nice haunted house story with wonderful characters.

Was this especially well-written? No. Was the plot a bit clumsy at times? Yes. But I'm still giving it 5 stars for the author's intent in writing it: to bring diversity and inclusion to the horror genre.

Name of the book : The Haunting of the Antique Brooch
Author : Hina Ansari
Publisher : Mill City Press
Number of pages : 326
Reps : Trans, Bisexual, Muslim, Indian American, Neurodiverse characters

The Haunting of the Antique Brooch is a diverse horror tale with the haunted house trope. Sixteen years old Roni & her friend, Matty thought investigating haunted houses would be a fun activity for the summer, until Roni unknowingly upsets a supernatural being. The trouble follows her home, putting everyone around her in danger.

I liked the representation of an Indian Muslim family living in America, an Asian American trans boy, a bisexual girl and a neurodiverse character.

But even though I am all for queer horror tales, this young adult novel did not work out for me. The romantic relationship of the protagonist fell flat and even the elements of horror were not terrifying enough. The plot is clumsy and the book is not well written.

There are far better books out there which have brought diversity in the horror genre. Give this book a miss!

I really have to hand it to this book - it was really good. It’s not a basic horror by any means as it’s wrapped up with multiple different paranormal beings such as ghosts, demons and djinns etc.

I would recommend to others who enjoy the paranormal and horrors.

I can't tell you how amazing it was to see a horror book with LGBTQ+ representation. These are two of my favourite genres, and this book just made me incredibly happy. I thought it was very well written. Keep up the good work!

this was a really good horror novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the spooky atmosphere. I look forward to more from the author.

For someone who rarely reads horror, this one was a treat. I absolutely loved the Muslim rep because that's something we have little to none. Roni was an interesting character to read but I think there were bits and pieces missing every here and there and she could be done in a better way. The pacing of this book was amazing and I was absolutely in lovebwith the setting of this book. The author did abrrally great job with this one.

The Haunting of the Antique Brooch as an okay read for me, but nothing more than that. What I liked about it was the (casual) diversity of the characters, such as transgender Marry, Abby with Downs, Roni who's an Indian muslim and finds out she's a lesbian, and so on.

The supernatural/horror elements of the story was also okay, but perhaps a bit basic, especially if one has read quite a few horror novels thoughout the years.

What annoyed me a bit with this book was the ending, which I felt had a few loose ends, in addition to the fact that the antique brooch element was just briefly mentioned once or twice I think during the entire book.

That said, I liked the concept of the book, but I just felt it could have been written in a different way.

I enjoyed this book but it didn’t quite stick with me. I thought the horror elements were well executed and thrilling, but the overall plot left me feeling unenthusiastic. While the characters accurately set up the right elements for a good ending but didn’t end up making me feel like things wrapped up smoothly.

***Thanks to NetGalley and Mill City Press for providing me an ARC of THE HAUNTING OF THE ANTIQUE BROOCH by Hina Ansari in exchange for my honest review.***

3/5

This book was an entertaining and good read with a lot of diversity. Recently I have been trying to reed more horror/supernatural books with LGBT+ characters so this book really caught my eye. I was personally super excited to read it because the main character is a Muslim, who also like girls!

The horror aspect of the novel was done in a way that I though was okay, but I felt that things didn't really tie up well in the end. In addition, I felt that the romance was done very fast and kind of out of nowhere.

Writing:
- The writing was okay. My biggest problem was the weird sentence structure that I found throughout the book a few times. (I noticed that is some of the words in sentences were flipped around, then they would make more sense.)

Pacing:
-The pacing in this book was a little bit slow for me.

Characters:
- THEY WERE AWESOME. I really loved the (casual) diversity in this book. As I was reading I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity that was worked in pretty naturally to the story. Our main character is a Muslim, who also like girls, her friend is a trans (ftm) Asian-American, and a friend of both of them has down syndrome.

I liked this book and would recommend it.

I really wanted to love this one - a queer haunted house story? Yes please. Unfortunately though it just fell flat for me mostly due to the writing itself, which could have been better. It was hard to connect with the story initially because of this, it really could have done with tighter editing, and so it became even harder to connect with the characters. The twist in the ghost story was decent but wasn't enough to save my opinion of the book in general.

Okay, this...was not for me.

This caught my attention because well, horror and queer? What else could I ask for right? But not everything is ‘all great’. I’m not really crazy about either YA or books written in first person, so it’s a bit hard for me to like when I had both situations going on. I often really dislike the main character when it’s first person because I am ‘too much inside their head’ which sadly was the case here. It’s mostly on me though, a personal preference. But I really didn’t like many of the main character's thoughts and attitudes.

That being said, this story is about a 16 years old girl named Roni who together with her best friend Matty, investigate haunted places as a ‘summer hobby’ it’s all cool until Roni actually encountered something that not only followed her home but hurt and actually killed a member of her family.

Her family is from India and they are very concerned about appearance and traditions.

Roni meets a mysterious girl named Marissa in the middle of that mess and starts developing feelings for her. This was a nice aspect of the book at least, even though I felt the relationship was a bit flat, even Roni's relationship with her best friend was superficial in my opinion. Another positive aspect was Matty being a trans boy so I liked the representation in this matter as well.

This has an interesting story and premise for sure, I love ghost stories and spooky things about demons and haunted places, I’m just not all crazy about the main character, most people wouldn’t be bothered by the same things I was probably so honestly, you should try this book and see it for yourself.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

This was certainly an interesting read and honestly I don't really know how to feel about it. I think my issue with the writing impacted my overall enjoyment of the book, because it was not great to be honest, but there was still a lot of things I enjoyed so it ended up a fairly solid read anyway.

I originally picked this up because it looked like it was going to be a gay haunted house story and I wasn't disappointed there. The romance however... wasn't my favorite but that probably is because I didn't feel connected to anything to do with this story and didn't really care about the romance because of that. It was kind of rushed and not really detailed and I just wish we would have gotten more from them.

This is also a pretty basic ghost story in my opinion. I've seen a lot of a horror movies and so there wasn't really anything that shocked me about this but that's okay. I'm not gonna fault the book for that. I think the diversity within the story really helped a lot though and I enjoyed the twist on it. I just don't think

Overall, I just didn't connect with the writing. At all. It was very choppy and not well done though I do think it got better as the book went on. It's a debut novel however so I'm not gonna put too much thought into that. I also thought the story itself was very basic ghost story and kind of cheesy at times but I think it was supposed to be so again, not gonna fault it for that.

In the end it was just very meh to me.

Not the biggest fan of this! It was cute in some parts and a bit creepy in others, I just didn’t feel like it was heavy on the horror, or the relationships for me. I’d read it again eventually to give it another chance, but my first time reading it wasn’t it for me. Thank you!

This is so not the cozy young adult mystery I was expecting. It’s bona fide horror, complete with ghosts, demons, djinns and a gorgeous and mysterious girl.

Sixteen-year-old Roni and her friend Matty thought investigating haunted houses would be a fun activity for the summer, until Roni unknowingly upsets “something”. The trouble follows her home, putting everyone around her in danger.

I’m not a huge fan of horror so I probably wouldn’t have read this book if I had been more careful. I’m really glad I wasn’t, it was an interesting experience and a really good book. The atmosphere was terrifying, the darkness soul-sucking and much more enjoyable than I thought it could be. A lot of my enjoyment of this book came from Roni’s character. As the youngest in her family, she’s always felt like an afterthought. Growing up in a progressive Chicago suburb, she’s very respectful of her family’s Indian Muslim culture and at the same time trying to fit in. She’s brave and stubborn and driven. She’s surrounded by all sorts of people. Her best friend Matty is transgender and his family comes from Thailand. The ghost experts they ask for help are a perfect mix of minorities. One girl has Down’s syndrome. And Roni, hitherto used to swooning over pretty boys, finds herself crushing hard on a girl.

At times this book could read like a diversity catalog yet it never feels forced.

It wouldn’t be utterly far-fetched to read this as a metaphor of teenage years, trying to find yourself, find your place in a world that is not ready for you and for who you are. Or simply enjoy it without looking for hidden meaning…

I received a copy from the author and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Salem Author Services, Mill City Press and the author, Hina Ansari, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Haunting of the Antique Brooch in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Unfortunately, this book did not hit the mark for me. The premise of the storyline certainly sounded intriguing but I struggled to finish reading it.
Sorry but not a book for me.

3.50 Stars. This was an interesting “ghost” story. I’ve wanted to read a little more horror lately especially if it is LGBTQ+. When I saw that this book fit those parameters, I was excited to read it. I do have to admit that I have some mixed feeling about this read but overall I did enjoy it.

This was a YA horror paranormal. I would classify this as more creepy horror than scary horror. I watch a lot of ghost haunting type shows so I might be harder to scare on this topic. So do keep that in mind that this might be scarier for other reader’s especially younger ones. But this is YA so I don’t think it’s too dark for a younger audience.

I was really happy about the diversity in this book. It may be one of the more diverse books I’ve read in a while actually. The main character Roni is a bisexual (I believe) Muslim who has a curvy body type. Her best friend is a trans boy who is Asian-American, and they have a mutual friend that has Down’s syndrome. And I’m only touching the surface here by mentioning only three characters.

For you romance fans out there, there is a light WLW romance. It was very G-rated YA style but I found it to be sweet. It was nice to see the confidence of Roni’s character growing because someone else made her feel special when she rarely did otherwise.

The actual “ghost” story was interesting. College age ghost investigators are trying to help Roni figure out what is going on. I also liked that there was a little twist to the entities that came from the Muslim religion and I liked how the clues were unfolding. The problem to me was it didn’t feel like it all came together. I was waiting for certain pieces to fall into place to make sense, but instead things just happened. I felt like it was a missed opportunity.

My other issues, and this happens in other horror books sometimes, is that I feel like I’m left with more questions than answers. I liked the actual ending, but there were too many unresolved plot lines left hanging. I have to be vague because of possible spoiler reasons but all I could say was “what was it all about?” “Are they gone?” “Why was that other thing even there to begin with?” There was some sort of answers but just not enough for me personally. This doesn’t seem like the kind of book that needs a sequel so I think I am left not knowing. And it’s a shame since I would have rated this quite a bit higher had there have been more answers.

If you are in the mood for some YA horror, give this book a try. There are some issues but it was entertaining, nicely diverse, and even a little sweet at times. I would read this author again.