Ghostlight

July 18, 2022
Ghostbusters meets Stranger Things in Oppel’s (Bloom) perceptive supernatural thriller. Despite his summer job giving ghost tours of Toronto’s historic Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, Greek-cued teen Gabe Vasilakis—who’s grieving the death of his largely absent father—harbors a deep skepticism about the otherworldly until he inadvertently wakes the ghost of 16-year-old Rebecca Strand, who died in 1839. Rebecca was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who, as part of a secret order, also warded the ghostlight, a mythical amber lens used to “protect the living from the wakeful and wicked dead.” His summer vacation ruined and perception overturned, Gabe is saddled with the knowledge that his hometown is crawling with specters, including the driven spirit of Rebecca’s murderer: powerful, human-devouring Nicholas Viker, who means to find the missing ghostlight and employ its terrible power. Alongside friends Yuri, a Russian-born inventor, and Callie, an intrepid ghost blogger of Goan descent, and working with historical ghosts, including Mississauga allies, Gabe must revisit clues buried in Toronto’s history before Viker gets his way. Blending frights, mystery elements, and a tender relationship, the story conjures considerable tension and a deep sense of place as it overlays Canadian history and the paranormal atop a feverish plot. Characters largely read as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.