Customer Reviews

Spirit

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Blackthorne has always been haunted. A tiny town in Massachusetts, it has been abandoned since the Salem witch trials, when a group of unfortunates fled there only to be hanged as witches.

Now, in the heart of the Victorian era, one train is bound for Blackthorne, where a winter carnival awaits in an attempt to breathe life into the old town. The cars are full of the promise of fireworks, sleigh rides, and skating, but Tess and Tobias Goodraven, two seasoned ghost hunters, expect something much darker.

Though they came in search of ghosts, even the Goodravens didn't expect a witch like Old Mother Malgore - a ghost full of malevolence, who stalks the forests, snuffing out any spark of life. When the train derails and casualties soar, the Goodravens must move between past and present tragedies to have any chance of killing the witch, quieting the souls of the living, and setting to rest the ghosts.

SPIRIT uses the historical Salem witch trials as a jumping point, and leaps off into an eerie ghost story. The prose is lyrical and haunting, and the narration, led by Tess and Tobias, oscillates between richly romantic, unexpectedly terrifying, and acerbically humorous, all with a touch of darkness. As the story progresses, readers' expectations will be completely derailed as new revelations move the plot in altogether uncharted directions.

With an ending so unexpectedly chilling that I was actually frightened, SPIRIT is a masterfully done book that will haunt the reader long after its cover has been closed.

Reviewed by: Rebecca Wells

It's Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1892. The Goodravens, Tess and Tobias, are a couple of independently wealthy, narcissistic young mediums who idle their hours away, spending money, hunting ghosts and playing the cello. With a name like Goodraven you can guess that these two are the good guys. Well, skulking in the woods between Salem and the nearby deserted and reputedly haunted town of Blackthorne--there had been an epidemic there once upon a time--lurks the "ghost" of a REAL witch. She hadn't been one of the merely poor, infirm or mentally unstable old women wrongly hanged as witches in the infamous Salem Trials. No, the Widow Malgore is the real thing: The First Accusd. "Malgore", another unsubtle moniker: "mal" (bad) and "gore" (which pretty much sums up this tale). Straight from Central Casting with glowing eyeballs and an animal's skull head, and riding the requisite demon steed she has bent to her will, Malgore draws ever greater dark powers from the very land itself. The woods between Salem and Blackthorne are haunted by some infinitely ancient, malevolent force, it is rumored in local Indian lore.

"There ARE witches in these woods," Josiah Jurey interrupted..."

There is a surprise ending but I won't give it away, although apparently the author wanted to make darn sure we didn't miss it. Instead of letting the surprise tap us on the shoulder, O. Henry style, author Hightman goes on to beat us over the head with a club of the obvious for another page and a half.

If chainsaws had been invented in 1892, then professional screenwriter J. P. Hightman would have undoubtedly written this book with one. So if gratuitous violence, a meandering and illogical plot line, and characters you neither identify with nor care that much about are your cup of tea (or chalice of blood), then this is just the book for you. The glossy black-and-red cover jacket with black guttering candles and the title SPIRIT writ dramatically in flame is calculated to make this book jump right off the shelf and into your trembling but eager hands with a loud cha-CHING!

In spite of all this (or rather, because of it), this book is sure to be a page-turner for the teen Goth set.

"Those who seek the truth in the blood of the Salem dead will find nothing but torment in their head..."

J.P. Hightman's book Spirit is a Gothic novel aimed at the young adult crowd. When its protagonists-- a young independently wealthy married couple-- go looking for the fate of the mysterious "First Accused" of the Salem witch trials, they find themselves trapped in a web of malevolent magic and unable to stop the train of deaths around them. As the body count rises and the evil intensifies, Tess and Tobias try frantically to discern what the spirits want from them. Will their isolation from one another prove their undoing, or will the phantoms of a long dead Puritan couple help them to survive?

Spirit's prose is sometimes breathtaking but often overwrought. The plot has so many tangles, twists and characters that it can be confusing, and puzzling scenes are left unexplained. The hypersensitivity of the main characters is a bit heavy-handed and at times annoying, but the haunting atmosphere of the novel easily overcomes its flaws.

Spirit is a ghost story perfect for chilly October nights and will appeal strongly to fans of Twilight.

Tobias and Tess Goodraven are a most unusual couple. Both orphaned at 13 when a Manhattan theater fire claimed their parents, they came away from that tragedy with a heightened empathy for the living and the dead and a physical need to seek ever more intense contact with the spirit world. Married at age 16 they are, by age 17, seasoned ghost hunters.

Their research in the occult leads them to Blackthorne, a sleepy hamlet outside Salem. Here the original Salem witches took refuge 200 years ago before being discovered and hanged. Now Blackthorne is deserted (and some say cursed) and the sight of a winter carnival.

Tobias and Tess are on their way to the carnival when the train carrying the merry-makers from Salem to Blackthorne derails, trapping them in a heavily wooded forest with an evil older and more powerful than any they have ever encountered.

SPIRIT
J.P. HIGHTMAN
Paranormal Young Adult

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

There's only one way to describe SPIRIT: a spellbinding page-turner. From the moment I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. J.P. Hightman crafts a riveting story that grabs hold of the reader immediately and doesn't let go until the startling, goosebump giving conclusion.

Tess and Tobias Goodravens, seventeen years old and newly married, are already seasoned ghost hunters. Now on the hunt for `The Ones Who Got Away', witches who somehow managed to escape the Salem Witch Trials, Tess and Tobias find themselves heading to Blackthorne, a tiny, haunted town in Massachusetts. Tess is already feeling anxious about the upcoming experience, while Tobias too is a little uneasy, but he does his best to hide his true feelings from his wife. Along the way, the couple are forced to take a train ride that will have extreme life changing consequences.

Wow, what an unexpected paranormal read. Aside from its unique setting and time period, Tess and Tobias are two of the more unusual characters I've ever run across, which I think made them all the more endearing. I loved the whole thing, the twists and turns, the unusual characters that populated the story.

An amazing tale, SPIRIT will leave the reader with goosebumps as they near the startling conclusion that will leave them speechless. I can't wait to read more from this talented author.

J. P. Hightman is a professional screenwriter and the author of the saint of dragons and samurai. He divides his time between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
October 2008

I am a 20-year-old Bookseller. I am not bias, nor closed-minded and I enjoy a decent scare just as much as the next person. However, I must strongly warn against this title. I was intrigued by the hugely understated plot summary on the inside flaps, so I borrowed a copy and read it in two days. I will admit the plot line is unique, but the content is full of pointless, senseless gore than has absolutely nothing to do with the story development and everything to do with feeble attempts to scare the reader. What really results is absolute disgust. Much of the horrific details are so unnecessary, one starts to wonder if the content did not exist, if a story would exist at all. Point being, it wouldnt. Maybe if the author had spent more time actually developing the storyline, instead of merely filling the pages with pointless murder, gore, massacre and mutilation, the book might be worth reading. Instead, we have a villain who kills for absolutely no reason, from slashing down innocent children to tearing the spines out of those who oppose her. Makes one wonder what on earth the publisher was thinking, allowing such a book to reach the shelves of the TEEN section of the bookstore.

I really liked this book....I, of course, read the inside cover/flap at the bookstore and thought it sounded pretty interesting. I took it home and couldn't put it down. I liked the flow of the author's words and the over all feel of the story. I'll be looking for more work from J.P. Hightman in the future.....great writer.