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Searching... Salem Main Library | J MacHale, D. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"I'm not sure anyone does suspense quite like D. J. MacHale." -James Dashner, New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner series
Leave the lights on for this spooky thriller from D. J. MacHale, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Pendragon ! Enter the Library, where no one knows how the stories end . . . and finding out will be terrifying.
There's a place beyond this world, beyond the land of the living, where ghosts go to write their unfinished stories-stories that ended too soon. It's a place for unexplained phenomena- mysteries that have never been solved, spirits that have never been laid to rest. And there's only one way in or out.
It's called the Library, and you can get there with a special key. But beware! Don't start a story you can't finish. Because in this library, the stories you can't finish just might finish you.
Author Notes
D. J. MacHale was born on March 11, 1956. He received a BFA in film production from New York University. Before writing his best selling Pendragon series, he worked as a freelance writer and director for television and movies. He co-created Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? series, wrote several ABC After-School Specials, directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, and co-created, wrote and produced the Showtime series Chris Cross, which won the CableAce award for Best Youth Series. He co-created, produced, wrote and directed the Discovery Kids/NBC television series Flight 29 Down, which earned him the Writers Guild of America award for Outstanding Children's Script. His other written works include The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Monster Princess, and the Morpheus Road series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Ghostly visitations, a bull attack, and a mysterious key are just a few of the elements MacHale (the Pendragon series) uses to creepy effect in this first book in his Library series. After seventh-grader Marcus O'Mara sees the ghost of Michael Swenor, a recently deceased New York City firefighter, he travels from Connecticut into the city to learn more, but he's shadowed by a menacing woman who tells him to "surrender the key." Swenor's widow gives Marcus the key in question and reveals that she knew Marcus's deceased biological parents. The truth about their deaths and the identity of the threatening woman lie in the Library, home to paranormal "disruptions"-in-progress, real-life stories. Enlisted as a library agent, Marcus attempts to "complete" Swenor's story, aided by best friends Lu and Theo, who round out an entertaining, quick-thinking, and racially diverse trio of heroes. Parental conflicts and school struggles add additional depth, but it's the eerie and enticing supernatural world that Marcus finds himself wrapped up in that will keep readers glued to this tense, fast-paced story. Ages 8-12. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Marcus OMaras world is turned upside down when he begins to see frightening apparitions while at school serving detention. The ghostly sightings increase as the white 13-year-old discovers that he is being hunted by a mysterious old woman. She confronts him, demanding that he surrender the key. Unable to turn to his adopted parents, who he feels hate him, Marcus shares the haunting visitations with his two closest friends, Lu, an Asian girl with a roller-derby aesthetic, and Theo, a buttoned-up black boy. (Marcus reflects, It would be a grand slam if we had a Hispanic friend. Or maybe a Tongan.") Following clues left by a ghost in a bathrobe, Marcus learns ofnbsp;his secret connection to an ancient curse, one that leads him to a doorway to which he is the only keyholder. This doorway leads to a library of unfinished stories of the dead. Marcus must find the answers to keep his loved ones from harm, and that means opening the door to the shadowed past of his birth parents. MacHale deftly pulls readers into this page-turning adventure, well-choreographed chapter transitions defying them to put it down. The likable, feisty Marcus narrates, following a prologue that sets up the rest of the book. Readers will be rooting for this tenacious kid as he keeps a steady head and stays just a step or two ahead of creepy beings conjured from a supernatural world. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A disturbing hallucination at school becomes just one aspect of new reality for 13-year-old Marcus. He's seeing ghosts and battling a malevolent spirit that threatens him, his family, and his friends in hopes that he will relinquish the Paradox key. Placed in any door, this old-fashioned key creates a portal to the Library, a repository of finished and unfinished stories in which supernatural forces create disturbances in the world. Though recent friction at home makes it hard to ask his adoptive parents for help, Marcus can always count on his friends Theo and Lu, who stick with him despite their terror. In the engaging first-person narrative, Marcus disarmingly says of his two best friends, we looked like the cast of some kids' show trying to cover all its ethnic bases. This novel tells a compelling tale, while setting up the framework for a longer story arc. Readers who love action and adventure, lightened with a bit of humor, will look forward to meeting Marcus, Lu, and Theo again in the Library series.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2016 Booklist