Ghostlight
Kenneth Oppel takes readers on a RIDE in his newest novel Ghostlight inspired by the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse on the Toronto Islands.
Gabe has a summer job conducting the ghost tour on Toronto Island. Part of the tour takes folks to the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, the scene of a couple mysterious deaths way back in 1839. Gabe likes to embellish his tours a little to keep things interesting making visitors think he actually has seen a ghost. One day he actually sees the ghost of Rebecca Strand, daughter of the lighthouse keeper who mysteriously died. Meeting Rebecca sets in motion a whole series of events, leading Gabe and his friends to fight to save Toronto from the “wakeful and wicked dead”
This story was, start to finish, a trip through present day Toronto through the stories of the past. Kenneth Oppel picks readers up and traps them in this ghostly marathon of a story. Just when you think Gabe and his friends have finally foiled the evil ghosts, you need to think again. The twists and turns keep coming page after page. The penultimate scene takes readers to the top of the CN Tower feeling every chilling fear of participating in the Edgewalk on a cold and windy night.
I really enjoyed how Kenneth Oppel takes readers to interesting Toronto landmarks throughout the story. The handy map, by Fred van Deelan, gives readers a little taste of what is to come right at the beginning. We race from the Island to Grange House, The Fisher Rare Book Library to the Necropolis, learning a little about the people and the places that helped shape Toronto as it is now. We meet historical characters like George Brown and William Ward and get little snippets of Toronto history. There is a lot of factual information throughout the story combined with fictional characters and events which makes this story highly engaging.
Kenneth Oppel weaves a tale that takes inspiration from the Ghostbusters, but throws it forward and backward throughout history. The amber of the ghostlight harkens to the amber of Jurassic park, the light launchers remind me of the Ghostbusters proton pack. There are really fun elements throughout the story to keep it interesting to readers from middle grade and up.
