School Library Journal Review
Gr 4--6-- In this offbeat and immersive gothic mystery set in the past, the people of Windydown Vale, an isolated former gold mining town surrounded by quicksand swamps, are hiding horrific secrets. Copper Inskeep, 14, an earnest, naive teen, can't help but try to save teenage stranger Annabelle, who bursts into the Vale on a runaway horse. After Copper rescues her from nearly drowning in the deadly mud, Annabelle claims the local Ghoul attacked her and her daddy--and now her daddy's missing. She begs Copper to go look for him. Readers are in on the secret that the Ghoul couldn't have done it because Copper, the story's narrator, admits he's the Ghoul who dresses up and scares people away from the town's dangerous swamps (adding, "I haven't hunted in days"). Soon after, a giant of a man drives his huge wagon into Vale and announces he's a monster hunter, and for a fee, he'll kill the Ghoul and find Annabelle's daddy. But he needs Copper's help. When they find mutilated animal carcasses, Copper wonders, is there another Ghoul? Chapters are short with cliffhanger endings, and the story has an old-fashioned feel, as Copper uses quaint words like nakifying and rollyskims. Characters are cued as white. They are all memorable, particularly Copper's identical triplet cousins and the three mayors. VERDICT This Cormac McCarthy--like tale (but less bleak) for middle grade readers has a vivid sense of place, an unusual mystery with genuine scares, and a satisfying, if bittersweet, ending that will appeal to readers looking for something a little different.--Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Lib., Trenton
Publisher's Weekly Review
Copper Inskeep, 14, lives in Windydown Vale, a town rife with sinkholes, quicksand-like mud, and secrets galore. Copper thinks he knows the biggest secret: the legendary Ghoul that haunts the town's outskirts has in fact always been a member of his family in costume, and now it's him. Windydown's founders, including Copper's grandfather, swore to keep the town safe from bandits--and travelers safe from the swamps--with manufactured Ghoul-sightings, which seems to work perfectly until the day a girl on a runaway horse thunders into town and reports that her father was taken by the Ghoul. Days later, a man shows up pledging to rid Windydown of the Ghoul for good--but much like the people of Windydown themselves, neither the girl nor the man is what they seem. Presumed-white characters are well drawn, particularly scarred blacksmith apprentice Liza, Copper's best friend and possible love interest, while Burt's (Cleo Porter and the Body Electric) sensory prose makes the slippery mud nearly tangible. Connor's struggle to honor his family legacy, as well as determine his feelings for Liza, will resonate with contemporary readers in Burt's twisty historical mystery, which balances jaunty banter with plenty of difficult realizations. Ages 10--14. (Sept.)
Booklist Review
Fourteen-year-old Copper is happy to secretly dress in a creepy costume and lurk along the lonely road into the Vale--partly because it's fun but also because, by helping to perpetuate the legend of a murderous local swamp monster, he's both discouraging banditry and encouraging travelers to hurry along to the inn his loving parents keep. Or so he's always been told. But then the arrival of a pair of obvious con artists posing as monster hunters exposes hints of a dark and horrifying reality beneath the town's friendly surface. Here Burt really puts the swamp into swamp gothic (and the gothic, too), as he repeatedly sends his stunned protagonist diving into the glutinous, sucking mud on which the town is built (nothing metaphorical here!) to hide, rescue a companion, or, in the course of a nightmarish climax, discover a mass of moldering corpses. He also surrounds Copper with a vivid supporting cast, highlighted by a set of scene-stealing young triplets but led by Liz, the blacksmith's daughter and a literally as well as figuratively sturdy friend. The agony Copper feels as both his assumptions and his loyalties are severely tested is as tangible as the muck in this magnificent, macabre melodrama.
