Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Featuring: Silas Umber
368 pages ISBN: 1416991182 EAN: 9781416991182 Kindle: B006VJN3K8 Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
Silas Umber has accepted his role as Undertaker of Lichport
when he receives an invitation to Arvale, the ancestral
manor of the Umbers, which lies in the Shadowlands. It's a
call he can't refuse, and given the interference from those
closest to him, Silas feels it the perfect time to spend so
time
away
from Lichport.
Arvale is much more than he thought it would be. It's a
strange and dangerous place that holds horrors and wonders
beyond his imagination. The residents of Arvale have waited
a long time for Silas. They want him to preside over the
Doom Door, honoring the archaic rite that binds the dead in
judgment. Silas, assumes the role of Janus, The Watcher of
the Threshold, but what he doesn't know can harm him. Silas
must right an ancient wrong and keep the promises he's made
to his family or be bound himself by ancient law until his
debt is paid.
MISTLE CHILD is the second book in The Undertaken
Trilogy by Ari Berk. I absolutely love Death Watch, the
first in the series. I'd hoped to see Silas exploring more
of Lichport and meeting the citizens, both dead and alive,
who stay in a town who holds so closely to the old customs,
but
that is not the case. MISTLE CHILD takes
place in Arvale, that strange manor in the Shadowlands that
is a law unto itself. I've mixed feelings about this. The
residents of Arvale didn't hold my interest nearly as much
as the residents of Lichport. As they're all dead at Arvale,
except a boy named Lars who wandered through the gateway
accidently, their motives for clinging to the manor and
wanting Silas's help are highly suspicious. I found myself
getting frustrated right along with Silas when no one at
Arvale would give him a straight answer.
MISTLE CHILD is a connecting novel, in my opinion. It
doesn't feel like it's a novel that can stand alone without
the first and the third to prop it up. Everything that
happens in MISTLE CHILD must happen so Lych Way, the third
in the trilogy, comes to pass. Reading all three back-to-
back as I did allowed me to see the connection and how
artfully they're tied together, but MISTLE CHILD doesn't
have the strength of Death Watch's plot or the moving climax
of Lych Way. I do still recommend MISTLE CHILD because it's
a vital part of The Undertaken Trilogy, and also
because Ari Berk can still astound with his beautifully
haunting prose and vivid descriptions. The walls of Arvale
do indeed hold more secrets than Silas can know.
MISTLE CHILD is at heart another aspect of death, one that
isn't shown in Death Watch. Older customs are shown and it
is interesting to see the evolution of death as societies
change. For a younger reader, MISTLE CHILD will provide the
thrilling danger or mysterious lands, the joy of finding
friends where you least expect them, and the terror of
creatures who hide in the dark.
Silas Umber has finally come into his own as the
Undertaker of Lichport when a mysterious invitation calls
him beyond the marshes to Arvale, the ancestral manor of
the
Umbers. There, his extended family endures, waiting for a
living Undertaker to return and preside over the Door
Doom,
an archaic rite that grants a terrible power to summon and
bind the dead in judgment.
As Silas assumes the mantle of Janus, the Watcher at
the
Threshold, deep below the earth in the catacombs and
sunken
towers, grim spirits grow restless at his arrival--hungry
for freedom and eager for vengeance against a family with
a
long history of harsh judgments. Now, Silas must right an
ancient wrong and accept that even a house of ghosts can
be
haunted by its past--for in matters of family, we are who
we
were.
Delving deeper into the haunting world of ghosts,
ancestors, and eldritch lore, Ari Berk returns to the
series
that Publisher's Weekly calls "thought-provoking gothic
fantasy," with a style the School Library Journal praises
as
"reminiscent of the classic gothic works of Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Shirley Jackson."
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