Greg Howard’s The Travelers Turns a Haunted House Into a Story of Grief

For readers drawn to spooky houses and stories about grief, Greg Howard’s The Travelers offers an appealing turn: what begins with eerie sounds and a lonely boy gradually opens into time travel and the hope of changing what cannot be undone. The shift gives the novel room to be both a mystery and an emotionally grounded story about a child trying to live with loss.

Ben Turner is 12 and grieving the death of his mother from a drug overdose. His only other family is a grandmother he has never met. When he arrives at her home, Clifton House, he finds little warmth in either the woman or the place. The old house feels unsettling, with noises in its walls that suggest someone may be there and an odd energy that leaves its history in question.

That setup gives Ben two kinds of isolation to face. He has lost the person he wants most, and the relative who might offer him a new connection seems cold and distant. Clifton House adds a third uncertainty: Ben can’t tell whether its strange qualities are simply unnerving or evidence of something beyond the ordinary. The house’s mystery therefore has personal weight. It arrives while Ben is searching for family and trying to understand what has happened to him.

From haunting to time travel

The story’s movement from possible ghost tale to time travel changes the question at its center. At first, the tension comes from what might be hidden in Clifton House. As Ben uncovers its secret, the larger possibility becomes whether the past can be reached—and whether he might use that discovery to save his mother. The premise draws on a familiar wish: if loss could be reversed, perhaps grief could be avoided too.

Howard’s approach, as described by reviewer Michelle in the Middle, keeps that wish connected to the people affected by loss. Ben learns that he is not the only person grieving his mother. That discovery broadens the emotional frame beyond one boy’s private sorrow and gives the story a way to consider how grief can be shared, even when each person experiences it differently.

Time travel is a natural fit for this subject because it makes regret tangible. A character who can imagine returning to an earlier moment can also imagine correcting it. But the emotional pull of that idea lies in the gap between wanting to change the past and finding a way to move forward. The review presents Ben’s hope of saving his mother as the engine of the story, while its description of the book’s themes points toward the harder work of living with what cannot be changed.

A middle grade story with a wide appeal

The Travelers is listed for elementary and middle school readers, with an appeal rating of “MANY.” Its ghostly atmosphere may suit readers who like a little unease in their fiction, while the questions of family and grief give book clubs and adult readers meaningful points to discuss. The review rates the language and violence “G” and mature content “PG,” noting same sex attraction and death. Those details may help families decide whether the book fits a particular reader.

Ben is identified as white, a detail that helps readers picture the character but doesn’t define the book’s wider appeal. The review’s strongest recommendation rests on the combination of an unusual premise and an understandable emotional starting point: a child who misses his mother and sees a possible route back to her.

Published by Nancy Paulsen (Penguin), the 320-page book is listed for 2026 at $10. Michelle in the Middle calls it an interesting premise and says she would read more by Howard. That response suggests a story whose speculative turn earns its place through the feelings beneath it. Readers looking for a frightening house, a mystery that changes shape, and a thoughtful treatment of grief may find Ben’s journey worth following.

At a glance

The Travelers by Greg Howard. 320 pages. Nancy Paulsen (Penguin), 2026. $10. Buying advisory: EL, MS — advisable. Language: G (0 swears). Mature content: PG (same sex attraction, death). Violence: G.