From Publishers Weekly
Launching the author's Dark Secrets series, this perkily paced if predictable tale centers on 16-year-old Megan, summoned to visit her grandmother in the sprawling Maryland house the family has owned for generations. Years before, the woman had disowned her daughter, Megan's adoptive mother, and this visit will be Megan's first meeting with her. Megan is shocked when she first drives up to the family homeAshe recognizes it from recurring dreams. Within, Grandmother is ill-tempered and unwelcoming, as is Matt, Megan's cousin, who has lived with Grandmother since his parents' difficult divorce. Chandler (At First Sight) lays on the plot's supernatural elements with a heavy hand: Megan hears that her grandmother's house is haunted, learns that she is the exact age at which Grandmother's sister and rival, Avril, mysteriously died andAone night after hearing a voice introducing itself as AvrilAsees an apparition of a girl in a mirror and then a vision of herself (or is it Avril?) lying in her bed, dead. The resolution of the plot, which involves reincarnation, may be sufficiently far-flung to put off some readers, but most are likely to find Chandler's easygoing yet tight writing style worth the journey out there. Ages 11-14. (Oct.) FYI: Elizabeth Chandler is the pen name of picture book author M.C. Helldorfer.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Gr 6-9-Megan isn't looking forward to visiting her mother's mother, who has summoned her. Helen Barnes's coolness toward her granddaughter goes beyond the fact that Megan was adopted. As the days pass, strange dreams haunt the teen and give way to uncanny placements of household objects that had been removed or abandoned years ago. Megan struggles with many things: her physical attraction to her cousin; the feeling that she had lived in this forbidding house before; and the fact that her grandmother grows more hostile with each day. The girl's uneasiness bursts into fear as she discovers that she is destined to repeat the tragic incident that killed her grandmother's younger sister many years before. The author blends reality and the supernatural into an engaging suspense novel. Each character, both primary and supporting, continues to develop throughout the story, and the true murderer is not revealed until the end. Carefully drawn chapters bring readers into Megan's mystery and leave them satisfied at the end. A good choice for teens who enjoy a blend of mystery, suspense, romance, and the supernatural.-Jana R. Fine, Clearwater Public Library System, FL
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.