Mistwalker by Saundra Mitchell (review)

Fishing runs in Willa Dixon’s blood, and she plans on continuing her family’s lobstering legacy after high school, taking over her father’s ship and living out the rest of her days in the sea-sprayed town of Broken Tooth, Maine. At least, that was the plan until her brother was shot and killed in a dispute with another fisherman and Willa’s father forbade her to step on a boat again. Now Willa’s basically sleepwalking through the rest of school, dreading her court date to testify against the shooter (she witnessed her brother’s death), and feeling a strange pull toward the local lighthouse, a place supposedly haunted by the Grey Man, a ghost who may grant wishes but at a cost. When a foggy night brings Willa to the foot of the lighthouse she does indeed meet Grey, who offers a grieving Willa the opportunity to take his place as the guardian of Broken Tooth’s waters. Both the ethereal power of the ocean and the hardscrabble milieu of a struggling fishing town are capably evoked here, and Willa’s affection for her home and her place in it are clear from the beginning. Narration alternates between Willa and Grey, but unfortunately, neither character is all that engaging: while understandably depressed, Willa is so closed off that she’s almost callous, and her tendency to brush off any emotion as dramatic makes her somewhat unsympathetic. Grey, on the other hand, exults in the melodrama of his situation, but his self-recriminations at offering Willa his post seem more showy than genuine. Still, there’s enough ghostly creepiness here to ensure a few shivers, and Willa’s struggle to sort out her fate and her family will likely keep readers turning the pages.