Parents' Guide to Ghostlight

This teen ghost hunter tale set near Toronto is stuffed full of paranormal action and seasoned with local history and solid friendships. While the balance may be tipped too heavily toward nonstop action in the final third of the story, it's still a fun ride. It will remind readers of the end of any Marvel movie, where the villain gets more and more wicked and Just. Won't. Die. -- except Viker, the grotesque, power-hungry, many armed monster in Ghostlight, is dead already, but still. Before the creature's overlong send-off, the story takes many turns, and four friends follow one clue after another to find a ghostlight that can destroy him. They visit lighthouses, graveyards, seances, and shipwrecks and meet some other fascinating ghosts along the way.

While Viker gets stronger, so do the friendships of the characters fighting him. Gabe is already close friends with Yuri, a budding inventor who works a summer job fixing bumper cars at an amusement park. Then they meet Callie, a ghost blogger, and Rebecca, a ghost who's determined both to save her father from Viker (who swallowed him -- yuck) and to experience a bit of modern life before she moves on. The four don't know the danger they're getting into, but they puzzle out one obstacle after another together, helped along by Yuri's cool inventions and Callie's journalistic instincts. They make a great ghost-fighting team. More time could have been spent with the teens facing less paranormal troubles, however. We hear of the stress Yuri's family endures as Russian immigrants and of Gabe's recent loss of his father, but those moments go by pretty fast. Perhaps there are more Ghostlight ghost stories to come, offering readers a better chance to enjoy many facets of these great characters.