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The Ghoul Next Door is the second book in the Monster High series by Lisi Harrison. It was released on April 5, 2011, followed by its thirteenth chapter on August 8, 2012. Its focus-character is Cleo de Nile.

Plot[]

Cleo was the queen bee of the RADs, the normies, and everyone in between at Merston High. But now it's "Frankie this" and "Melody that"... these new girls sure know how to get her lashes in a tangle. When Cleo lands a golden Teen Vogue photo op for her friends, everything seems to be back on track...until they bail to be in some film...Frankie and Melody's film! Can't a royal get some loyal?

Frankie lost her head over Brett once and vowed never to do it again. Not that she has a choice: Bekka is clinging to her guy like plastic wrap. But when Brett comes up with a plan that could help the RADs live free, sparks fly, and Bekka will stop at nothing to put out the flames...even if it means destroying the entire monster community.

The clock is tick-tick-ticking. Melody has a serious deadline to save her boyfriend, Jackson, from being exposed by the vengeance-seeking Bekka. But Cleo is making it royally difficult for the normie while threatening her acceptance into the RADs' exclusive group...a group that Melody suspects she has more in common with than she ever thought.

Summary[]

The book is told in the alternating perspectives of Frankie Stein, a girl made in her parent’s lab, Melody Carver, a fifteen-year-old girl who feels like a misfit amongst her picture-perfect family, and Cleo de Nile, a mummy and the queen bee of Merston High.

After the September Semi fiasco, the monster sighting has forced the town into a strictly enforced curfew. Cleo prepares for her father's return from an excavation trip in Egypt, with her servants, Beb and Hasina, doing most of the work. Ramses de Nile returns earlier than usual, along with his assistant, Manu, and Cleo is shocked to find he knows everything that has happened, save for Cleo’s involvement by attending the dance in her mummy wraps. Ramses shows Cleo the jewelry excavated from her Aunt Nefertiti’s tomb, which Cleo is duly impressed by, but also spots a business card from Anna Wintour, editor for Teen Vogue. Cleo is far more interested in the card, much to Ramses’ disappointment, but tells her that on the return trip, Anna expressed an interest in a Vogue photoshoot of Cairo couture, starring Nefertiti’s jewels. Cleo convinces her father to make the call, while also allowing her to oversee the photoshoot and protect their antiques. Later that night, during a neighborhood blackout, Cleo admires her Aunt’s jewels, but is dismayed that the curfew means no one can admire them. Deuce arrives, having stoned her servants to get in, apologizes for going to the dance with Melody and makes up with Cleo by giving her a gray snake (his mother’s first gray “hair”), which he stones and fashions into an accessory, and which Cleo names Hissette. Cleo forgives him, but is confused when he drags her to an unofficial RIP meeting at Frankie’s house.

Melody and Candace are home due to the curfew, with Candace having to wax her own legs after the salon closes due to the monster sighting. Candace is displeased with this, along with her parents’ decision to have fun with board games, microwave dinners, and wearing Ugg boots. Melody, meanwhile, continues getting threatening audio messages from Bekka of a ticking clock, reminding her of her deadline to turn in Frankie after she kissed Brett at the Semi. Melody tells Candace the truth of the monster sightings after Candace playfully threatens to throw out Melody’s phone. Believing that helping the RAD’s is a good cause, Candace decides to create Normies Uncool with Discriminating Idiots (NUDI), inducting herself and Melody in the organization. Melody receives a message from Jackson about a RIP meeting at Frankie’s house, and is able to sneak out with Candace's help. Frankie, meanwhile, is fully charged and put back together by her father. Frankie feels guilty for her parent's exhaustion, and lonely with her lack of personal possessions and friends. When the power suddenly goes out, Frankie tries to head to her parents’ room to give their amp a jump start before their batteries drain, when the window to her room opens and Billy walks in. Billy gives Frankie a new phone, and reveals that the RADs are indeed angry about the monster hunts, but the RAD’s kids are happy Frankie took a stand and begin coming in through the window for the meeting in her room. When Melody shows up, the RADs are initially wary due to her connection to Bekka, with Cleo being the most vocally against Melody’s inclusion. Frankie and Jackson vouch for her, and Melody disavows her friendship with Bekka. Frankie explains her plan to turn herself in, thus bringing the hunt to an end, though it receives mixed reactions. After an incident with Hissette becoming unstoned, the power comes back on and the RADs dissipate. The next morning, Viktor plans to tinker in the lab to relieve his stress. Frankie reveals her plan to turn herself in, which her parents are vehemently against. During the argument, Billy arrives and offers to pretend to be Frankie, turn himself in, then escape by undressing and going invisible once more, tricking the police into thinking that "Frankie" tore herself apart, under the condition that Frankie be allowed to fight for their freedom. Viktor and Viveka hesitantly agree and help execute the plan.

After a tanning session in her room, Cleo leaves her house, having found out earlier that a firewall was put up per her father’s orders blocking communication to and from her house, and discovers several texts from her friends regarding another meeting at Frankie’s house. Annoyed, Cleo shows up at the meeting and finds out about the FrankiBilly plan, which has been put into motion with the help of Melody. However, Cleo’s protests about Melody being a normie, and therefore not to be trusted, fall on deaf ears. Candace drives Billy and Melody to the hospital, where they intend to turn in FrankiBilly to Bekka herself, who is waiting for Brett to wake up. Melody and Billy manage to sneak past the tight security, turn Billy into Frankie, and go to Brett’s room. Meanwhile, Frankie and her friends are watching the events unfold on the TV. Brett wakes up, much to Bekka’s delight, but her mood quickly sours when Brett expresses confusion over tearing Bekka’s head off during the best kiss of his life, still mistaking Frankie for Bekka. FrankiBilly arrives, causing even more chaos, but Brett is happy to see FrankiBilly and the two talk. Going back on her word, Bekka releases the video of Jackson’s transformation to the gathered reporters, which they immediately hop on. Melody tells Billy to remove his costume, giving the reporters something else to chase and take their attention off the video, which he happily complies with, causing everyone to leave Brett’s room. A horrified Brett tries to follow, but Melody stops him and tells him the truth regarding Frankie and her need to protect her identity. Brett agrees and also joins NUDI. Ross Healy, a reporter for Channel Two news, delights in the events that have now been dismissed as an elaborate prank by the news and goes back to Brett’s room to give his business card for future events. While leaving the hospital, Melody finds Bekka talking to the police, who plan on doling out community service as punishment for her prank. Bekka, sighting Melody, tries to get her to explain to the police, but Melody, as revenge, corroborates the story that it was all a cruel prank.

At school on Monday, Cleo celebrates the return to normalcy and finally shows her friends the pictures of her Aunt’s jewels and tells them about her Teen Vogue gig. Their huddle is interrupted by Billy, Frankie, Melody, and Jackson, who are also relieved to return to normal. Frankie plans to meet Brett near the carousel after school, and the other girls eagerly wish to go along until Cleo tells them that they will also star as models in the Vogue gig and need to plan their looks. They change their plans to go with Cleo instead. After school, Billy, Frankie, Melody, and Jackson go to meet with Brett, but unbeknownst to them, Billy eventually stops walking with them, no longer being able to bear seeing his crush, Frankie, be with another man. They meet with Brett, and he and Frankie have a long conversation, hiding in the bushes when Bekka spots Melody and Jackson and accuses them of being monster sympathizers. Brett decides to use his connections with Ross at Channel Two news to film and air a segment during Oregon Week, interviewing the RADs and their plight. Frankie agrees to the idea, so long as the interviews blur their faces. After getting the green light from Ross, Frankie organizes a meeting at her house.

Cleo and her friends go to her house after school to plan their looks for the shoot, while Cleo frantically tries to get permission from Vogue for her friends to be models. Permission is granted, and Cleo is ecstatic, but her enthusiasm dims when her friends are more interested in the documentary opportunity Frankie has texted them about. Despite Cleo’s protests, the girls want to fight for their freedom, knowing full well they would not follow their dreams due to their unique RAD looks. Cleo reluctantly goes along with them to the meeting. At Frankie’s house, she explains the documentary to the assembled RADs, with the help of Brett and Melody, and its name: The Ghoul Next Door, as well as the news wanting to do in-studio interviews when it airs. However, the day the documentary airs coincides with the day of the Vogue photoshoot, and, much to Cleo’s surprise, her friends decide they would rather do the documentary, causing Cleo to leave in anger.

A few days later, Cleo is still without her friends at school, having clung to Deuce for companionship, but growing sick of the constant sports talk and lack of girly-gossip. Overhearing a pair of costumed girls talking about the documentary, Cleo grills them for information, and finds out that Bekka and Haylee have started a RAD and NUDI counter-organization: Humans Unite! No Tolerance (HUNT), and distributed propaganda posters framing the RADs for forcing Brett to make a documentary. Cleo secretly arranges a meeting with Bekka and Haylee, offering to help them take down the documentary, in exchange for the ongoing cell-phone novel the two had been making regarding Cleo kissing Brett to be taken down, which they agree to. Meanwhile, Frankie and Brett prepare Jackson as the first interview for the documentary at his monster memorabilia shed, which goes well, but they also want an interview with D.J., which Frankie also wants to use as a way to break up with him. They overheat the room, successfully bringing out D.J., who surprises Frankie by easily doing the interview and preemptively breaking up with her, and also find out that Heath, manning the camera, is a RAD as well, making him eligible for the documentary.

On a Sunday, Cleo, Bekka and Haylee are at school in the AV room, attempting to intercept a rough cut of the movie expected by Ross the next day, which Brett normally works on and sends from that room. Much to their surprise, Brett arrives with Frankie and sends the rough cut early, but a phone call from Ross soon afterward shows that he is displeased with the blurred interviews and demands unblurred ones. Brett refuses, citing the safety of the RADs, and he and Frankie leave to plan another meeting regarding the movie. Satisfied that the movie will not air, Cleo leaves Bekka and Haylee.  At the meeting at Frankie’s house, she reveals the movie not airing, and how Brett stood up for the RADs. Cleo also attends, apologizing to her friends, denying her “friendship” with Bekka and Haylee, and once again offering the Vogue shoot opportunity, which they eagerly accept. On Thursday, the day the documentary was supposed to air, Blue, Lala and Clawdeen happily take a limo to the shoot, while a dejected Frankie heads home. Her plans change upon hearing from Melody that the movie will air after all, and Frankie and Brett set up an impromptu viewing party in Brett’s shed. When the movie airs, however, it is preceded by an anti-RAD message from Bekka, followed by the interviews unblurred. Scared for their safety, the RADs flee Brett’s shed, the confusion causes the shed to overheat, bringing out D.J., and Brett and Melody are blamed for the fiasco. Melody leaves to find Jackson, but unable to find him, she enlists Candace’s help to find and confront Cleo instead.

The girls, who were on their way to the shoot and had watched the movie in the limo, head back home instead, no longer able to trust Melody or Cleo since both had conspired with Bekka. Cleo, already at the shoot, becomes increasingly worried when the girls are a no-show. When Melody and Candace arrive, they are roped into doing the shoot, with Cleo promising to tell them the truth afterward. The shoot goes awry when the camels being used kick up a frenzy and ruin the Oregon sand dune backdrop, though Melody is able to calm them with her singing voice, which had suddenly returned after years of going missing due to her asthma. The shoot is a failure but Cleo is nonetheless impressed and reveals all she knows regarding the movie, though is just as shocked as they are that the movie aired with unblurred interviews. Manu talks with Melody, complimenting her voice and requesting his regards tendered towards her mother, Marina. Melody is confused by his statement, but is horrified when he makes mention of Marina’s daughter having an unfortunate nose. On the way home with Candace, Melody is conflicted regarding who her mother really is, and the emerging situation with the RADs.

Lost Chapter (Whose Unlucky Number Shall Go Unmentioned)

The thirteenth chapter of this novel was absent from the original release of the novel, but was released sixteen months later. All the novels in the Monster High series follow a similar format where this chapter is missing.

For Chapter 13: Snatch Me If You Can, see The Ghoul Next Door (disambiguation).


Characters[]

Charlisticon1
  1. Cleo de Nile
  2. Melody Carver
  3. Frankie Stein
  4. Viktor Stein
  5. Viveka Stein
  6. Beau Carver
  7. Glory Carver
  8. Ramses de Nile
  9. Hasina
  10. Beb
  11. Candace Carver
  12. Jackson Jekyll
  13. Bekka Madden
  14. Haylee
  15. Brett Redding
  16. Ross Healy
  17. Mrs. Redding
  18. Clawdeen Wolf
  19. Draculaura
  20. Lagoona Blue
  21. Deuce Gorgon
  22. D.J. Hyde
  23. Heath Burns
  24. Billy Phaidin
  25. Glitterati
  26. Hissette
  27. Akins
  28. Chisisi
  29. Bastet
  30. Ufa
  31. Usi
  32. Miu-Miu
  33. Ebonee
  34. Manu
  35. Kolin VanVerbeentengarden
  36. Anna Wintour
  37. Ghoulia Yelps
  38. Jaydra
  39. Joffree
  40. Kora
Charlisticon2

Notes[]

Errors[]

  • Candace was described as having aqua blue eyes in Monster High, but in chapter 2 of The Ghoul Next Door, she is said to have green eyes.
  • When planning The Ghoul Next Door, Frankie volunteers to have her interview conducted first, but when the time comes to do the interviews, Jackson goes first instead.
    • In the next book, Where There's a Wolf, There's a Way, it is revealed that Frankie was not a part of the movie at all, implying that she did not have an interview for herself.
    • Heath is discovered to be a RAD while the interviews are conducted, and he too offers to be interviewed for the movie, yet in the next book, he is one of the few RADs who have not left Salem, also implying that he was not in the movie since his identity was not exposed.
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