Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Crossroads

The Crossroads

by Chris Grabenstein* (2008)

Sons 2 & 3 are into spooky books and scary stories; of course #3 usually invades our bed at night because 1 & 2 try to freak him out, which is why I try to hide the scary books he checks out as soon as we're home from the library... anyway, I picked this one up for #2 but he'd already read it, so I gave it a try.  About 1:15 am I was wishing I hadn't started it after the sun went down...

Traditional ghost story, the dead at unrest, the past attempting to control the future, bad people deserve their painful fate... almost too many characters here, especially in the beginning, we don't know who's minor or major, dead or alive, past or present... but they're all connected and it all sorts out.  The dead mother was a bit much, didn't add to the story and/or could have been a story all it's own. Some minor characters are very well done and I'd read more of (Davey the farm-boy ghost and the Librarian).
Overall, good read.




*really? Grabenstein? Chris Grab-en-stein writes spooky books? that's perfect...

3 comments:

Chris Grabenstein said...

I'm glad you enjoyed Zack's first adventure!

Boo! And, I think, Grabenstein is German for Gravestone! (And sounds like Frankenstein, too)

Mr. Nauton said...

Cool, my 2nd author comment...? Looking forward to the next Zack adventure!

Peaceful Reader said...

I read this book also and liked it...sometimes it spooked me. I didn't get the whole mom dying thing either but I loved the stepmom-she was a great character.