'Draw the Dark' is one of four books launching Minneapolis-based Carolrhoda's new line of distinctive fiction that the publisher says 'offers YA authors and their readers an opportunity to explore and experiment with the full range of adolescent triumph and tragedy.' In the book, Christian is a teen who loves to draw, but his talent scares him. He has sketched a door on his bedroom wall that changes locations during the night, and he somehow knows that if he draws a doorknob, he might find his dead mother on the other side. When he's accused of painting swastikas on the old barn owned by the town's mean rich guy, people think he's even odder than they supposed. Christian is haunted by the idea that he can draw people's deepest fears, causing them to die. When he's sentenced to do community service at a nursing home, he's drawn to a mute old man who had been a painter and harbors a secret. This is psychological horror at its best. --Pioneer Press
-- "Newspaper"
Christian is able to draw images from the minds of others--who then tend to die. His attempt to understand this power leads to an exhumation of the town's dark past, involving German prisoners of war, the community's last surviving Jew, and a murder. This cold-case-meets-magical-realism narrative is a suspenseful tale and a critical examination of how history is written. --The Horn Book Guide
-- "Journal"
Christian Cage's mother and father disappeared from the small town of Winter, WI, long ago, leaving him with his pragmatic Uncle Hank, the town sheriff. Clues left behind by his mother have led Christian to believe that his parents are both trapped in 'the sideways place' and unable to return home. An outcast at school because of the belief that he caused the near-suicide of his first-grade teacher years earlier, the 17-year-old spends his spare time obsessively drawing images of the sideways place. As the novel opens, he discovers that in his sleep he has painted swastikas on a prominent citizen's barn. Soon after, he begins to have waking nightmares in which he sees a violent incident from the past through the eyes of a young Jewish boy. Frightened and bewildered, Christian researches Winter's history for an explanation, unearthing long-forgotten World War II-era events involving a camp for German prisoners of war. He also searches for answers about his growing ability to draw the thoughts and nightmares of those around him. Bick has created a likable teen protagonist whose unique ability is completely believable in the author's skilled hands. The novel brilliantly strikes a compelling balance between fantasy and contemporary fiction. Readers will be on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what happens next and will clamor for a sequel to follow Christian into the sideways place. --School Library Journal
-- "Journal"
Drawing has had unusual repercussions in 17-year-old Christian Cage's life: His mother has vanished to a sideways place he drew, his aunt drowned in a sinking car exactly as he sketched it out and he defaced a barn of the wealthiest man in Winter, Wisc., in his sleep. While he is doing restitution work for the barn incident, Christian has visions of a terrible 1945 murder involving a Jewish union organizer and a German factory owner who imported prisoners of war. Bick's tight plotting drives the action forward, and dream drawing sequences provide tantalizing clues. Characterization is thin, however; the historical characters are more realized than the contemporary ones, and Christian's attempts to deal with his guilt appear genuine but lack emotional impact. Resolving a twisted mystery with a surprising solution, the tense narrative unfortunately loses cohesion in tying up a few minor plot points. These small flaws notwithstanding, this otherwise excellent mystery might bring new life to a neglected genre. --Kirkus Reviews
-- "Journal"
It is one thing to have your own bad memories--it is another to have the collective bad memories of a town filed away in your head. Christian knows this torment intimately, as he has taken to drawing the dark images that lace his mind. With both of his parents missing in action, he finds himself drawing inexplicable images and, worse yet, embattled in wars that he cannot recall creating. This loner discovers his sleepy town's nasty little secret of what really happened when the Nazis arrived. He also becomes a bit of an unsuspecting medium for connecting the town's past and present. This offering is chock-full of action and vivid characterization. The plot is unique and highlights a time that is often overlooked in American history-it will keep readers engaged and wondering how it will all end. The author paints vivid depictions of Christian's mind, and the reader will be right there with him along for the ride. The ending will leave the reader holding on for dear life. The author has a few loose ends, but something this enthralling should never be expected to end neatly or conform to traditional literary notions. This title is a must for any school or public library--it is not to be missed. --VOYA
-- "Journal"
Packed with enough ideas to fuel two or three books, Bick's ambitious, intelligent, and relentlessly dark novel is a notable achievement, even if it (understandably) wavers beneath its own weight. Seventeen-year-old Christian is a painter who is developing some disturbing talents: he can paint others' thoughts and memories, perhaps even influencing their actions. He is also having some vivid dreams in which he inhabits the body of a child in the 1940s, watching as a town business leader uses German POWs as laborers. Christian awakes from one of these fugues to find himself blamed for painting swastikas on a barn, a terrible event that results in two fortuitous meetings: a dying old man in a nursing home with a connection to Christian's dreams and a friendly psychiatrist who becomes his chief confidant. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: psychotic bullies, deformed babies, sex scandals--you almost need to take notes to keep up. Interest levels might fluctuate across overlong scenes, but patient readers will be well rewarded. Gut-punch of an ending, too. --Booklist
-- "Journal"
Seventeen-year-old Christian is a loner at school--which is what tends to happen when you live in a small town with a hidden history, your parents have disappeared, you hear voices in your head from 'the sideways place, ' and you can draw people to death. Sometimes Christian's drawings are taken over by the thoughts of those around him, and when he draws their deepest fears, they die. But now something new is happening: Christian is falling into the life of an eight-year-old boy who lived during the 1940s when Winter, Wis., was home to German WWII prisoners who performed labor in town. The boy witnessed an atrocious crime, and Christian gets caught up in the mystery he uncovers. Though the story is at times hard to follow, as Christian moves in and out of his life and tries to understand his connection to the mysterious 'sideways place' that plays a pivotal role in the story's climax, Bick builds the gripping supernatural/historical mystery to a satisfying conclusion that demonstrates the evils of the present can be just as terrifying as those of the past. --Publishers Weekly
-- "Journal"
Seventeen-year-old Christian Cage is an outcast in the small town of Winter, Wisconsin. He lives with his Uncle Hank, sheriff of the town, because his parents left him at an early age. He thinks outside the box. He is an artist. He is quiet. However, these are not the main reasons for his detachment in this quiet rural town. The main reason for his solitude is that people who get too close to him seem to die. With the help of his Uncle Hank, the town doctor, and a close friend, Christian explores the complexity of his psychosis, his family history, and the rich, yet hidden secrets, of Winter. Bick has interwoven suspense, mystery, and supernatural fantasy and has created a realistic, yet fantastic, character in Christian Cage. The reader is easily engaged in the suspense of Christian's life and the tumultuous events surrounding him. Set in a sleepy rural town with ties to World War II, Winter, Wisconsin, is the perfect backdrop for this coming-of-age story. Bick's novel is a welcomed addition to any mystery fan's repertoire, but history buffs and fantasy readers will enjoy Draw the Dark's account of the past. --ALAN's Picks
-- "Journal"
There are secrets in the small town of Winter, Wisconsin, some of them buried deep within its very foundations. Seventeen-year-old Christian Cage has no desire to uncover these secrets, but unfortunately, the voices in his head have other plans. Already an outsider due to his tendency to draw nightmarish images that have bizarre connections to real and often fatal events, he finds that his sudden interest in the town's history only gets him more grief and his questions regarding a nearly seventy-year-old murder are met with stalwart reticence. Nonetheless, fueled by what he believes to be the flashbacks of a dying man and by the strange mutterings from 'the sideways place' (which may be delusions or may be supernatural communications), Christian uncovers a decades-old web of deception that involves secret Nazis, scandalous affairs, a murdered love child, and demonic forces. The author packs quite a bit into this gloomy mystery, but that's all part of the fun: the reader gets to play detective along with Christian as he sorts out the truth from the various red herrings thrown his way. The supernatural element is at times awkwardly integrated, but fortunately its role in the story is minimal, and the impeccable pacing and tantalizingly drawn mystery largely overshadow this flaw. The breathtaking conclusion ties up most of the loose ends but leaves just enough unanswered questions to make the reader still vaguely suspicious of Winter and its residents. Hand this to fans of Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement (BCCB 9/10) or A.J. Whitten's The Well (BCCB 12/09). --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
-- "Journal"
