Happy Halloween! I have the perfect book review for today, and I didn’t even plan it this way!
In August my baby cousin got married (she’s only a few years younger than I am, but I still can’t believe she’s married) and we drove down to Kentucky for the ceremony. I was riding in the car with my parents while my brothers drove down separately and my mom asked a few days beforehand what we were going to do to keep ourselves occupied. I thought the answer was obvious because she still needed to fulfill her “read a book out loud to someone” for the Read Harder Challenge and she had managed to snag an ARC of Ghostly Echoes, which we all wanted to read. She said her voice couldn’t take five straight hours of reading, so she and I switched off chapters and my dad even read a few chapters while I took my turn at the wheel.
This book did not disappoint. When we last saw Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Jackaby, there was a mysterious pale man with a blue tinge to his face and a strange aura about him that only Jackaby could see. He definitely makes a reappearance in William Ritter’s newest book and we get to learn at least part of his story. Whether or not we’ll ever see him again is uncertain by the time the book ends, but we do learn a lot of other things, such as how Jenny Cavanaugh died.
We learn who Jenny’s killer was and what happened to her fiancé who mysteriously disappeared around the time of her death. I wouldn’t say the killer gets what’s coming to them, but they are safely tucked away where they can’t hurt anyone and will probably either prove useful and/or get what’s coming to them in the book(s) to come.
In the meantime, Charlie Barker makes a reappearance (yay!) in both human and canine form and Rook and Jackaby discover a mad scientist who has figured out how to steal energy from other people and transfer it to himself. He does get what’s coming to him before the end of this book, but first Rook has to pay a visit to the land of the dead and talk to a few spirits. My favorite was Nellie, because I love her and was so glad to get to see her again, even if it was only for a few pages. But the plot- and character-developing ones were Jenny’s fiancé and Eleanor, Jackaby’s childhood friend who had the sight before him and apparently gave him the nickname Jackaby.
After Rook’s trip, we learn there’s a whole secret, powerful organization that was probably responsible for Eleanor’s death, was indirectly responsibly for Jenny’s death and what happened to her fiancé, and is currently out to get Jackaby and Rook. So the good news is this can’t possibly be the end of the series because it ended on a cliffhanger in which Rook and Jackaby are preparing to face this evil organization and save the world as we know it from ending. You know. The usual.
This book was just as much fun as its predecessors and it’s another great book to read aloud with loved ones. I highly recommend it and I cannot wait until the next one comes out!
What did you guys read this week? Any other fun sequels?