A teen without a home. A dangerous residence. Can she survive one terrifying night to secure her future?

Charlene Griffin never thought she'd be without a home. But when she's kicked out on her eighteenth birthday, she has no choice but to sleep inside an ominous Victorian mansion. And with the owner offering the estate to anyone who can spend a full night in the haunted property, Charlene decides to risk life and limb to get off the streets.

Refusing to heed the warnings of those sent running in fear for their lives, Charlene is confident she can last from sunset to sunrise. But she'll need all her wits about her to withstand the hours of terror, because these ghosts are determined to get rid of her.

Will Charlene outsmart her supernatural foes and make it to dawn?

Defying the Ghosts is an eerie YA haunted house story. If you like heart-racing action, fearless heroes, and survival adventures, then you'll love Joan Marie Verba's thrilling tale.

A ghost needs space to haunt, and a teenager kicked out of the house by a mother unable to love, lacking money for a rental, and looking for a safe place to stay doesn't have it to offer. But the haunted house offered to Charlene if she can last the night has lost its original family, driven other would-be claimants out by the aggressive late residents, and Charlene is too determined to give up on the only option she's been able to find. Instead of exorcisms or high-tech spirit guns firing special-effects rays, she tries a simpler method for dealing with ghostly threats: compassion, fueled by stubbornness and courage. Joan Marie Verba's Defying the Ghosts offers the eerie dangers expected of haunts, but works through to a slime-less conclusion offering an elegant win to both the living and the dead. —Ruth Berman, Midwest Book Award recipient for Bradamant's Quest and Minnesota Fantasy Award recipient