The Protectors (review)

Luke and his mother have always tiptoed around Luke's stepfather, Sal, who has never been overtly violent but has shown plenty of anger and jealousy. Sal has at least taught Luke all there is to know about the mortician business, but when Luke's mother dies in a bizarre accident she seems to have had a bad premonition about, Luke wants nothing to do with helping to prepare the body or dealing with the oddly flat and unemotional Sal. Messages from beyond (Luke's mother always said she had a number of Protectors, spirits who helped her in repayment for her kindness), an increasingly bizarre Sal, and unexplained sounds in the house all lead Luke to an unknown basement, where he will have to keep his wits, in spite of the horrors he finds there, to defeat Sal. This hi-lo book succeeds elegantly in offering a lightning pace, a trim, focused storyline, and a minimum of superfluous characters for horror fans who may need additional reading practice. The novel is best consumed in one gulp, without much time to catch potential problems; issues arise upon contemplation, as there are a few major plot points that hinge on unrealistic (even in a ghost story) elements or baffling discrepancies. In addition, Luke himself is so painfully slow to catch on to what is fairly obvious from the start about the true fate of his mother that it will reduce reader sympathy. Nevertheless, you can't go far wrong with a maniacal stepfather, cool (if somewhat inefficient) ghost Protectors, and a secret basement compartment that contains untold nightmares in building a horror story that teens will want to read.