The Legend of Greyhallow

Short, Summer Rachel. The Legend of Greyhallow

July 18, 2023 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Ainsley Galloway has moved to Lowry with their parents, who grew up there. She's had to leave her friend Charlotte behind, but since the two parted on less than pleasant terms, a fresh start in an intersting community isn't all bad. The parents have bought the abandoned house of the director of the very popular Legend of Greyhallow film trilogy, and home to renovate it and turn it in to a bed and breakfast. Since the town has a summer long festival celebrating the films, this seems like a great idea, and Lowry is a very picturesque town. No one really knows what happened to Ambrose Ripley, who disappeared in the mid 1990s, but while Ainsley and her brother Tobin are at the festival, one of the vendors (who is dressed as a witch), gives her a box that holds a key. Ainsley has been investigating the house, hoping for a secret room or other interesting nook, but it is Tobin who suggests checking out the attic. There, the two find a room set up with an old fashioned film projector and a closet full of Greyhallow costumes. When they play the movie that is in the projector, they find that they can step into the projection on the wall and actually enter the scene of the movie! Tobin wants to tell their parents, but Ainsley wants to investigate further. Armed with a full backpack, having left a note for their parents, the two go into Greyhallow only to find that things are badly wrong. It's exciting to meet characters they know from the movies, but alarming to know that the villain, Lord Mourdro, is waging an unpleasant war that has destroyed any of the pleasant aspects of the fantasy world. Even worse, he manages to make his way into Lowry with his evil minions, and wreaks havoc there. It is up to Ainsley and her brother, along with the visiting Charlotte, to figure out what is going on, and to work with the fictional characters to try to keep the world safe. 

Strengths: This is a fascinating premise, and I found it interesting that the Greyhallow trilogy was filmed and not a book! Combining a cool old house with a fantasy world was inspired, and readers who like Lord of the Rings type tales will wish that they, too, could meet characters like Quaglim, a brilliant gnome inventor, Zander, the shepherd boy, or the enchantress Kalandra. Heck, even I think it sounds fun to fight the Shadow Army of Lord Mourdro. Ambrose Ripley was worked into the plot in a particularly interesting way, and this might be a stand alone, which would be fantastic. I have a lot of readers who would like to read fantasy, but don't want to commit to a huge series. 
Weaknesses: If Ainsley and Tobin had been able to spend more time in the town, and more time in a pleasant version of Greyhallow, I would have been more invested in their attempts to save the world. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who like to think that they, too, might travel from our world into a fantasy one, just like the characters in Perry's Thieving Collectors of Fine Children's Books, Benko's The Unicorn Quest, West's Long Lost, Durst's Even and Odd, or McKay's Last Dragon Charmer series.