Shelly's Book Blog

I seem to be on a roll with gothic-themed books. This book is the first of the series, The Alchemist's Son, and it, too, is about kids who move with their family into an old house that seems to be haunted. This time the "ghost" is a 12-year-old boy named Sebastian, who claims to have been born in 1430. He says his father built the old house and was an alchemist for King Henry V. Furthermore, his father discovered a way for people to "hibernate" for years at a time, and Sebastian has just awoken from this kind of sleep. There is also, according to Sebastian, an evil alchemist named de Loudéac who was his father's rival and has also just awoken.

This story contains some pretty scary scenes (a swarm of insects, bloody ghosts) that younger kids would probably find very scary. For older kids, though, it should prove interesting because of the dual time travel and horror themes. The story could have been longer, but then I haven't read the second book yet.