New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015.
260, 12 p. ; 21 cm.
Michael Grant is no stranger to writing bestsellers - his sprawling Gone series is popular, and I'm guessing this new series will do pretty well, too.
The novel opens with a confused and disoriented main character seemingly lost in a surreal, magical and ominous reality of mists, muted colors and strange characters. As the novel develops the reader learns that it is a supernatural world of spirits, demons, and demigods that lies behind everyday reality - and is the realm in which justice and injustice are exacted against rather puny and powerless humans who transgress against the moral order.
Grant is good at creating a frightening, magical and oppressive atmosphere and conveying the ways in which fear and imagination can be as terrifying as actual physical events.
The writing is a little uneven. I found that it got better as it went along. The plotting is pretty good, though my guess is that readers will question question just how immoral some of the actions of characters are. Is it really so terrible to kill off an animal that has been badly hurt in an accident - does it require the intervention of the cosmic forces of good and evil?
Problems aside, I think that readers wanting a creative horror novel will enjoy this read. As School Library Journal put it in a review, the book will "delight those readers who enjoy a little gore and horror in their books."
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