Through Her Eyes

Gr 7—10—Best-selling horror novelist Millicent Moon relocates to the site of each of her working manuscripts to guarantee verisimilitude, and the constant traveling makes her teenage daughter more than a little irritated. Tansy Piper can carry her passion for photography with her wherever she goes, but she is tired of new towns, new schools, and new people. This particular small town, Cedar Canyon, TX, is where her grandfather grew up, and it soon becomes clear that it holds more than just pleasant memories. The prologue reveals that Henry Peterson, the restless spirit of a young man believed to have killed himself, intends to contact Tansy; what isn't clear is whether his intent is benign. Tansy discovers that Papa Dan was Henry's friend; their shared history is revealed to her through the lens of her camera, and through a crystal pendant that makes her an active participant in past events. Ultimately, Tansy is witness to the truth of a long-ago tragedy, and through her a grievous wrong is righted. While her narrator is occasionally self-absorbed, Archer has her plot threads firmly in hand, and characterizations are agreeably constructed. The ghostly manifestations are well integrated, and the images of poems, nightingales, and watches frozen in time are deftly handled. Tansy's emotional world builds slowly: that she fears she is losing her mind, that she is in danger of succumbing to Henry's questionably sane manipulations, become clear. The action picks up when she and her hard-won friends (including a possible romantic interest) pool their knowledge of past and present events in order to bring peace to Henry. The outcome is satisfyingly tidy, and the expected ending neatly achieved.—Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL