Colleen Mondor Reviews Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel
Ghostlight, Kenneth Oppel (Knopf 978-0-593-48793-8, $17.99, hc, 387pp) September 2022. Cover by Katrina Damkoehler.
Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel has all the hallmarks of classic teen mystery. There’s a trio of friends spending their summer working in the town amusement park who suddenly find themselves engaged in deadly battle against a terrifying ghost. One of the kids can see a local ghost, one is a mechanical savant, and one is a history-obsessed ghost hunter. Combined they are exactly the friend group that you wish you had at sixteen and, although the story is less bloody, a trio that is totally ready for their own Stranger Things–type adventure.
Gabe gives the daily ghost tour on Toronto Island while his friend Yuri keeps the bumper cars going and Callie conducts her research into the island’s ghosts for her blog. The highlight of Gabe’s tour is the lighthouse where Rebecca Strand and her father, the keeper, fell to their deaths in 1839. Callie is certain that the Strands haunt the lighthouse and wants to investigate. Gabe accidentally discovers that she is right and “bonds” with Rebecca. She needs help to free her father from a terrible undead prison (not zombies but still… ew), and there’s another problem. If they can’t find the original lighthouse light, then the monster that killed the Strands is going to lead a ghost uprising and TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
So, yeah, it’s serious. But it’s also quite fun as the plot surges ahead while the teens (living and dead) run down the history of the lighthouse, and exactly who the big bad ghost is (and used to be back when he was alive). There are lots of meetings with other ghosts (who are not wannabe murderers) and the group all learns more about each other along the way. There is some coming of age, some getting comfortable in their own skin, and learning to love who they are and where they come from. There is also a lot of running for their lives, negotiating with the dead, and fighting their way out of the stomach of a… well, that’s something that would be spoiled if I gave too much detail. There are no love triangles, but a ton of bonding. For the 12-and-up crowd, Ghostlight will be a complete winner. (I also recommend fans of Kate Milford’s titles check this one out.)
Colleen Mondor, Contributing Editor, is a writer, historian, and reviewer who co-owns an aircraft leasing company with her husband. She is the author of “The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska” and reviews regularly for the ALA’s Booklist. Currently at work on a book about the 1932 Mt. McKinley Cosmic Ray Expedition, she and her family reside in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. More info can be found on her website: www.colleenmondor.com.
This review and more like it in the January 2023 issue of Locus.
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