The Screaming Staircase is one of the most thematically complex books written by young adults in the past twenty-five years. 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.
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. It also explores themes of dealing with your mistakes, working together to solve mysteries, and just how difficult (and rewarding) running a business is. Any one of these themes would make The Screaming Staircase an engaging and interesting book. Taken together, the themes above create tremendous tension and provide the novel with complexity, and compelling characters and story.
The Screaming Staircase is set in modern-day London, where what Stroud calls "the problems" have begun. "The problems" involve the supernatural world rearing its ugly and demonic head to bother and violently assault people all across the city. During "the problems," various kinds of ghosts, haunts, and specters pop up all over the city during the night.
There are groups and agencies around the city whose sole focus is to eradicate supernatural forces. Only young people, as it turns out, can battle supernatural forces because they are the only ones with psychic abilities. These psychic abilities are the only things that can destroy those supernatural beings, beings that pose people tremendous danger.
Over time, more and more agencies begin to pop up which aim to rid London of the scourge of supernatural beings. Each agency is in fierce competition with the other for business around the city. Although there are many supernatural beings, there are more agencies that exist that are willing to take them on.
One of those agencies is called Lockwood and Co., which was created by Lucy and a man named Anthony Lockwood. Their goal in creating the agency is to create a business run solely by children; they succeed in doing so. They enlist the help of several people, including a young man named George, who Lucy takes a liking to. Together, Lucy and her friends and colleagues take on cases but run into trouble.
Eventually, 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 take the job on with tremendous vigor and passion. But they also run into several issues at the Combe Carey Hall and frequently find themselves in perilous situations.
At Combe Carey Hall, for instance, the group comes face-to-face with the eponymous "Screaming staircase." The "screaming staircase" gives the group quite a bit of trouble and forces them to reconsider their line of work and if they are in danger. They are, in fact, in danger. And they spend much of the later part of the book battling the screaming staircase and associated spiritual foes, a fight they win in the end.
