Light Beneath Ferns

January 4, 2010
This contemporary ghost story begins on a suspenseful note, with narrator Elizah Rayne warning readers, “If death and the dead make you afraid, you better just stop reading and go take a nap.” However, heavy foreshadowing and transparent characterizations mar the overall effect. In order to escape the scandal of her father's sudden disappearance, Elizah and her mother move to a different town, where Elizah resists making friends with her new classmates. Her interests are limited to bones, specifically the human jawbone she found in the woods, and Nathaniel, a mysterious loner she meets under a bridge, whose touch (a “mingling of coolness and heat”) reminds Elizah of “light beneath ferns.” Evidence mounts that Nathaniel is a ghost, but Elizah remains skeptical until a local psychic helps her piece together the puzzle of Nathaniel's history. While Spollen's (The Shape of Water
) story offers some evocative imagery of the spirit world, Elizah's real-world conflicts—her isolation from peers and her ambiguous feelings toward her absent father—seem to be swept under the rug. Ages 12–up.

March 1, 2010
Grades 7-10 Elizah and her mother live on the edge of a cemetery. Most 14-year-olds would be sort of creeped out by that, but she is far more upset by her mothers sudden need to be normal. With the recent departure of her father, Elizahs main concerns are keeping the school guidance counselor off her back and resisting her mothers attempts to make her a social butterfly; that is, until she finds a jawbone amid the graves. Thereafter, she is inexplicably drawn to Nathaniel, an odd young man whose interest in her seems tied to her recent discovery. Spollens sophomore effort (The Shape of Water, 2008) is a welcome reprieve from the onslaught of torrid vampire romances but still offers the excitement and drama of supernatural fare. The big reveal wont be much of a surprise to readers up on their ghost lore. However, the atmospheric tension and quiet longing found on every page will satisfy fans of the paranormal romance genre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)