Wednesday, July 03, 2013

The Haunters and other British book!

HauntersTaylor, Thomas. The Haunters.
28 May 2013, Chicken House
E ARC from Netgalley.com

David has frequent dreams about a boy named Eddie, and they come more frequently in the wake of his father’s death. When an ambulance picks him up from school, supposedly for a doctor’s appointment, David finds out that he is in a lot of danger because he is a Dreamwalker. He finds himself at Unsleep House under the tutelage of Professor Feldrake, who tells him that Eddie is actually David’s own grandfather as a boy. In 1940, during the Blitz, Eddie was able to escape, but in David’s dreams, he does not. There is a rival organization, Haunters, who are trying to go back into history and change it for their own evil purposes, and Eddie is one of their targets, since he grew up to organize the Dreamwalkers. The head haunter is a vicious boy named Adam, who is bound and determined to kill Eddie off with the help of a man from the time, Charlie Grinn. There are other Dreamwalkers, Petra and Dishita, and they help David with the difficult process of traveling through a matrix of time and space in order to undo the bad things that the Haunters are doing. David learns even more secrets about his family’s past, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a sequel to this book.
Strengths: This was very well written with TONS of action and adventure, right from the beginning. Like all good time travel books, this one hurt my brain, but had a good device (the ghost concept is one I haven’t really seen, except sort of in Tom’s Midnight Garden), likeable characters, and understandable mission.  Fans of Michael Lawrence’s A Crack in the Line would love this one.
Weaknesses: I got oddly distracted by the concept of the cake tin, as this is clearly a British book.

And speaking of British books, look what I got in the mail!!!!!
They are so shiny! And soon to be available in the US on e book! I'll have reviews soon, but let's just say that nothing makes me drop everything and binge read like a fresh stack of Wilson's books. *Happy Sigh*

And why DON'T we have school uniforms at every school? I would be perfectly okay with khakis, a white blouse and a navy cardi every single day! It's baked beans for tea this evening! With toast!


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:19 AM EDT

    Man oh man. Happy read your shiney new books!

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  2. The Haunters sounds great. I hadn't heard of it. Thanks for sharing it. And enjoy your new books.

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  3. I think Wilson would probably be fairly popular at my library, but I never review ebook only books, b/c I have nothing to do with that purchasing structure (done by a state-wide committee). On the other hand, I DO buy books direct from the UK sometimes, but usually sequels I just can't get anywhere else (D'Lacey's beginning chapter dragon series and Skulduggery Pleasant). I just experimented with B&T's option to purchase UK books and ta-da! Gum Girl is now ours! So I might use that more in future.

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