Shadowland

This novel, the first in The Mediator series, will appeal to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer everywhere, with its unbeatable combination of ghost story and high-school romance, American-style. Jenny Carroll is the pen name of Meggin Patricia Cabot, a prolific writer who already has a number of bestselling books to her credit under various pseudonyms. This is a venture into a different genre - the ghost story - and Carroll tackles it with relish. Susannah Simon is 16 years old, a lonely New York City girl who has to move from her beloved East Coast to live with her mother and new step-family in Carmel, California. Traumatic enough for any teenager, this adjustment to a new family and environment is complicated even more by Susannah's natural gift for talking to the dead. Susannah is a mediator, a contact point for the dead who can't (or won't) make it to the other side. Her dubious talent has brought her grief with the authorities in New York, and the move to California seems set to make things worse. The family home is a beautiful old house harbouring its own resident unsettled spirit, which has set up residence in Susannah's bedroom. There is also the small matter of the angry ghost haunting the locker room in her new school, desperate for revenge on an ex-boyfriend, not to mention the discovery that her school principal, Father Dominic, is also a mediator. Young teenagers will find this novel compulsive, if undemanding, reading. Susannah is the embodiment of teenage angst, worrying about her looks, her friends and her utter lack of success with boys, as well as trying to fit in with her new family. Bright and independent, she also possesses the ability to poke fun at herself with a wry, self-deprecating humour unusual in teen fiction. This is a novel that demands to be read at a single sitting, and will leave readers clamouring for the next in the series. (Kirkus UK)