Night Terrors

April 22, 2013
In this addition to the Orca Soundings series, written at a third-grade reading level, Rodman brings together many elements familiar to horror-flick fans—a remote resort with a teenage staff, ghostly apparitions, a creepy, hardass boss—to craft a page-turner about a boy’s journey to overcome personal trauma. Eighteen-year-old Dylan can’t shake the nightmares that have been haunting him ever since he witnessed his six-year-old brother’s drowning a year ago. When therapy and medicine don’t help, Dylan takes a seasonal job at Ravenslake Lodge to get away from every-thing. However, staying on to help winterize the place brings a different kind of nightmare. Short sentences and chapters pack a punch, helping sustain the tension of Dylan’s often terrifying ordeal. Ages 12–up.

July 1, 2013
A boy who can't quite shake the memory (or guilt) of seeing his little brother drown lands himself in a dangerous situation after he takes a job at a sketchy wilderness resort. A great amount of exposition and a two-dimensional villain weaken this otherwise intriguing hi-lo novel appropriate mostly for reluctant readers specifically looking for ghost stories.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)