BOOK REVIEW: DEEP, DARK, & DANGEROUS
This is a good old-fashioned ghost story. Complete with rain storms, a dark lake, and disappearing characters. There is even a creepy doll.
Ali’s mother, Claire, and her aunt Dulcie have a secret. And like all good secrets, they yearn to be revealed and discovered. Who is that girl ripped out of the picture from their childhood? Claire and Dulcie claim that they do not remember. Ali thinks otherwise. So, when Ali gets invited to go the lake house to babysit her cousin Emma for the summer, she sets out to discover who the girl in the photograph is and why she is such a secret.
This book is written very simply without a lot of fanfare. The older the reader, the faster the book speeds to its conclusion because the story is pretty straightforward and, I guess, pretty predictable. I guessed early in the story what the secret was and how this whole thing might play out. My 12 year old did, too. BUT, having said that, I still think the story holds the reader (I mean it IS a ghost story, afterall…) and is a good little story. It is not terribly scary, which is good for a tween novel, and I would rate it as a PG book. Tweens and teens will relate to the angst that Ali feels at trying to fit in with her hip aunt and her desire to both separate from her mother and defend her. There are a couple of twists and turns and then the final result brings peace to everyone.
And there is just enough eerieness to keep the story moving along.
And the story definitely puts the ka-bash on secret-keeping, that’s for sure!
So, I would recommend this novel for boys and girls ages 9 to 13.
Book by Mary Downing Hahn
This is on my 12 year old’s favorite book list!