The Light

Gr 7 Up—Marsh can't wait to hang out with his best friend, Cooper, during the summer. When Marsh learns that his friend has other plans, he's crushed. Cooper gets caught scalping tickets, and Marsh can't get over the change in his friend. When Cooper disappears, Marsh is determined to find out what happened. But then Gravedigger, a creepy character that Marsh has been drawing obsessively, suddenly appears and begins to torment the boy. As things get more difficult to understand and as Marsh gets more and more frightened for his life, he turns to Cooper's enigmatic sister to uncover what happened to Cooper. However, Marsh's journey with Gravedigger has only just begun, and he wonders if he will be forced to travel the unknown "Morpheus Road." D. J. MacHale's chilling first title (Aladdin, 2010) in a projected trilogy is a ghost story with true bite. Nick Podehl perfectly balances the voice of a teenage boy, the gravely and chilling tones of evil spirits, and the suspenseful pacing of the text. Fans of MacHale's Pendragon series will be drawn to this tale, but younger listeners should be made aware that this is a much more frightening and graphically violent series.—Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT