Graveyard Shift

May 1, 2012
Two London teens train to escort souls into the afterlife in this thoroughly muddled fantasy. They have been recruited by Mr. October, a master of disguise given to both cryptic hints and long-winded background explanations. Ben goes out each night either to an office to type the names of the dead onto file cards in the magically disguised "Ministry of Pandemonium" or into the streets with psychic classmate Becky to escort the city's newly minted ghosts through a shining doorway. This latter task is complicated by the menacing Lords of Sundown--a diverse group of baddies with the vague agenda of bringing "disorder and chaos to the world." They achieve this by both kidnapping confused spirits and sucking out the souls of the living like (as Mr. October puts it) "industrial-strength vacuum cleaners of doom." When Ben pockets a card with his own mother's name on it, Mr. October saves his job with a transparent switcheroo, but the lad's failure to follow proper procedure somehow lets the Lords of Sundown into the Ministry for a climactic battle. Ben's filing expertise is key to overcoming them. A jumble of contrived events and nonsensical details, this book is neither suspenseful enough to work as drama nor funny enough to be a sendup. (Fantasy. 11-13)

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August 1, 2012

Gr 6-9-A loner, more content to hang out sketching in graveyards than to hang out at the mall, Ben Harvester has trouble fitting in at school. It does not help that on his first day in a new school, he sees three ghosts in his classroom, beseeching him for help. It is through the intervention of mysterious Mr. October, whom he meets in London's Highgate Cemetery, that Ben learns he has a gift, to see and assist the dead pass on. As he becomes an apprentice in the Ministry of Pandemonium, he also becomes involved in an ongoing war between Mr. October's associates and a league of sinister malcontents intent on stealing lost souls for their own nefarious purposes. As his own powers grow, Ben actually feels more powerless, attempting to understand and accept his mother's cancer diagnosis. When her name appears on a list of the soon-to-be-deceased, though, he makes a decision that could jeopardize not only his position in the Ministry, but also the fate of many, many more souls. The intriguing world Mr. October inhabits sets the stage for a great ghost story. Though the book can stand alone, readers will find themselves longing for a sequel.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT

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