Raven's Gate Book one of the Gatekeepers [Hardcover]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

The internationally bestselling author of STORMBREAKER and EAGLE STRIKE plunges strikingly into Stephen King territory in this chilling first installment in a powerful new series.

Matt is being punished for a crime he saw, but didn't commit. Instead of being locked up, he is being sent to the middle of nowhere to live with a new foster mom, as part of a government scheme called The Leaf Project. But Matt's new home provides anything but peace and quiet. His new guardian is involved in very sinister things . . . and the whole town seems to be on her side. Everybody who tries to help Matt winds up disappearing . . . or dead. The truth is much bigger than Matt or the town -- but Matt is the only person who can stop the ultimate evil from being unleashed.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 5-8. Horowitz, fresh off his success with his Alex Rider series, ratchets things up a notch with the first in the Gatekeepers series about five young people who must save the world from evil. A master of edge-of-your-seat writing, Horowitz gives himself lots of opportunity to push the envelope here. He focuses on 14-year-old Matt, a troubled orphan who is in with the wrong crowd. As punishment for being present during an assault, Matt must choose between life with off-putting Mrs. Deverill in a remote Yorkshire village, or jail. As Matt soon learns, Lesser Malling is much worse than jail, because strange and dangerous things are occurring there. Raven's Gate, an ancient portal to the world of evil, is about to be opened, and Matt is to be the blood sacrifice. Novels about boys (and girls) facing dark forces are nothing new, and this one certainly contains elements of familiar stories (Hello, Harry Potter). But the real-world setting gives this an extra frisson of horror, and Horowitz's vivid descriptions are not for the fainthearted. It's what's inside all the thrills, however, that makes the book so strong: characters that readers will care about and root for. There will be an eager audience for the next in the series, to be titled Evil Star. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Horowitz's talent for building suspense is as strong as ever, and this unnatural tale, which descends into ancient evils, should attract a strong following." Publishers Weekly "It's what's inside all the thrills, however, that makes the book so strong: characters that readers will care about and root for." Booklist "This powerful struggle between good and evil is a real page-turner." School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; First Edition edition (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439679958
• ISBN-13: 978-0439679954
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear -- "My father was a very secretive man," he says-- so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.
A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands&. I was an astoundingly large, round child&." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.


Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And&oh yes&there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Summer Reads, June 6, 2005

By 

kmr (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raven's Gate Book one of the Gatekeepers (Hardcover)

To be honest, I picked up this book by accident. Presuming it was another of Horowitz's addicting Alex Rider series, I had taken it off of the shelf and found it in among my purchase bag as a total surprise. However, this did not stop me from reading this book first out of the many that I usually attain.

As an avid reader at age 14, I believe this book to be one of the best summer reads so far. This book takes you into a world where almost anything can happen, not unlike Harry Potter books. It is quick paced and encapturing, a lot like the Alex Rider series by the same author. Add a little other-worldy ancient evil into the mix, much like the Midnighter's series by Scott Westerfield, and you've got an instant wonder-book!

In this main tale, long-since orphaned Matt is given unequified punishment for crimes he only partially committed. Stuck to deal with a crazy new guardian in an even stanger new small town of the English countryside, he begins to realize that fate has its hand upon him. He finds evidence to believe that his new legal advisor- even the whole town- may have planned the whole thing, even back to the death of his parents!

Struggling with help of the few persons who reach out to him, Matt begins to realize he must fufill more than ever expected of a 14 year old before. An ancient prophecy remains to be proven at his hands. It is up to Matt to stop an ancient evil from rising into the world, against all odds.

I absolutely ADORED this book, and I could not have been more pleased to have 'accidentally' chosen it off of the book store shelf. This book discusses pre-ordained fate throughout witty plot and character developement. Fate, however, most definitely came into my hands in the form of reading this book. Absolutely excellent and I cannot wait for the entirety of the series to become available!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, February 23, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raven's Gate Book one of the Gatekeepers (Hardcover)

Do you believe in witches or the Old Ones?

Matt has been accused of committing a crime which actually he really didn't do. So now he has a choice to either go to jail or stay with an old lady named Mrs. Deverill in a remote area called Lesser Malling because of the government's new law called the LEAF Project. Matt should have chosen jail because he will soon find out that someone is planning something there at Lesser Malling, and Matt is in the middle of all the commotion.

Matt's past hasn't been the best. His parents died in a car crash six years ago and he has been living with his mom's stepsister, who doesn't necessarily treat him very well. But Matt has discovered that he has some kind of weird magical power--but doesn't know what it is.

When he gets to Mrs. Deverill's house he isn't treated in the best way possible. Even though he thinks the food is good he has to do chores and basically clean up all of Mrs. Deverill's property. After a while he has had enough of this bizarre nonsense and wants to leave, because this was supposed to be a volunteer act.

But when he tries to take a bike out to the main road back to Greater Malling and then back to London, every road he takes just brings him back to the place he started from. Well, he went home after that, and thought that he'd try the next day.

When coming back to the same spot, a guy named Tom Burgess appears and says he wants to help Matt out because this isn't a safe place to be. He also says that he will explain everything tomorrow at his farm, but what Matt doesn't know is that he will find Tom dead the next day.

After Tom's death things got even worse. Mrs. Deverill starts to come out more strongly and everyone that tries to help him get out of this creepy place just ends up dead. Is Matt's new helper bound to turn up dead, too?

Find out! Read the book.

I think this book is incredible!! Once you start reading you can't stop! This book has a twist at every turn. I recommend this book to anybody interested in books like the Harry Potter series--it's just so magnificent!!

Reviewed by: Spreeha

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars demolisher/GARDEN NOAM, September 2, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Raven's Gate Book one of the Gatekeepers (Hardcover)

This book is awsome. Even though its slow at first but after a few chapters it gets freaky.You will never put all the pieces together until the end kind of like a puzzle.Anyway this book is great. PS. STAY AWAY FROM CATS