Back in ye olde prologue days, a young woman is determined to follow her father in the role as lighthousekeeper at Gibraltar Point, a vital position to help those mooring at Toronto. But she is to find the job involves something else, when the old man uses the beam – and a 'ghostlight' when really called for – to frazzle malevolent ghouls and vindictive drowned spirits. Then some kind of uber-ghoul kills them both. Cut to closer to now, and a lad is lazily talking this story up as a highlight on a theme park ghost walk – until first a spectral investigator turns up seeking info, and then the lighthouse daughter manifests, seeking help. Just as the big bad wakes up. Humongously coincidental? Probably. Great fun? Potentially.

This does a great job in opening out the typical ghost story – it is not all set in the one haunted place, it is not all at night, and we see a much more adventure-styled race against time kind of drama for our heroes. It also has a fine lore, where the ghosts are the expected left-overs with something to finish off, revenge to gain etc, but more than that besides. I liked the way our guy is dropped into a relationship with the deceased here, through how this universe works.

And it was also great to have some kind of authentic Toronto as the setting – not some fictional city; while I haven't been so can't know for sure how accurate it is here it was just welcome to have a location I wasn't over-used to.

You do get a little too familiar, perhaps, by the finish – this could easily have been shorter, but the breadth of it allows for the author to do the unexpected, and to build momentum and emotion to the final action scene. This rich story deserves being called 'cinematic' for the scope of the drama and the range of beats and turns it takes us through. I have no idea how a beam of light knows whether it has a filter in front of it, and needs a five-second warm-up when definitely turned on, but picking nits is a bit of a vain exercise here – this is a very strong recommendation for a great read. Four and a half stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Guppy Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The vibes: Adventure, friendship, history (reminding me of Night at the Museum but with historical ghost allies), cozy mystery turning into a higher stakes mystery, an innocent first love (like in Casper the Friendly Ghost) and an epic end battle that gave me some Ghostbusters vibes!

The start of this book was mind blowing and emotional. I had to catch my breath and get over the shock of this amazing start. After that we follow Gabe who lives (with his mom) in Toronto, Canada. As a summer job, he’s a ghost tour guide on Toronto island. Gabe does not believe in ghosts until he accidentally wakes one up and that’s how he meets Rebecca. As a ghost she scares him at first but it doesn’t take long until they become friends and maybe a bit more.. He loves talking to her and she makes him feel less alone. The way she tried communicating with him at first was really inventive and funny.

Rebecca needs help and Gabe and his friends Yuri, who is great with machines, and Callie who is a ghost blogger, decide to help her. This is when the story turns into a cozy mystery with pretty low stakes.

Until a real villain ( a ghost who is part man, part monster) called Nicholas Viker, who is truly evil, causes so much trouble, there was suddenly much more at stake and to solve, and it felt to me that it was too irresponsible at that point, to not ask adults for help. Many innocent people were (possibly) getting hurt or dying. That’s my only issue with this book by the way but as soon as I got over that, I really started enjoying it again. But I would have loved it even more if there was “just” a treath of big danger they had to prevent.

The villain reminded me of No-face from the movie Spirited Away but also of the Maw-Mounth from Naomi Novik’s book A Deadly Education. Combine that with a truly evil, power hungry deceiving ghost of a man and you get Nicholas Viker. A great Villain!

This is a 400+ pages long book but I never felt like it was too long. A cozy and exciting read, a perfect companion for these dark, stormy nights!

A fast-paced ghost story with a difference. Unlike some ghost stories this has relatable characters and emotional depth and family drama which kept me reading. Yet it still delivers on all the thrills and chills making it a great read for teens...and for me!

Sometimes, I am way behind everyone else in reading a particular title and this read by Kenneth Oppel is a case in point. When it appeared on Net Galley a few days ago, I was immediately taken by its cover and after reading the blurb, requested it – not discovering until now that it has in fact been out for just over a year and I am very late to this particular party. If, like me, you have not read this tense and spooky Young Adult title then grab yourself a copy now. Perfect for the run up to Hallowe’en, this is a wonderful ghost story that will have you on the edge of your seat as the forces of good and evil battle for control of the titular ghostlight.

For Gabe, ghosts are the basis of his summer job as he leads groups of tourists around his local area and tells them tales of the spirits that haunt it. Adding in his own parts to make the script he has been given more exciting, he tells those assembled about Rebecca Strand, whose body was found at the foot of the lighthouse in which she lived with her father. When the tour has finished, a girl hangs back to speak to him and introducing herself as Callie she tells him about her ghost blog and gives him her card before asking if she can look about the lighthouse. When Gabe says no, she tells him that she will return the following day as she believes that Rebecca and her father were murdered and she is determined to prove it.

Over a burger with his friend Yuri, Gabe tells him about Callie and is surprised when Yuri says that ghosts can quite logically be explained away. After they leave Gabe spots a light flickering within the lamp room of the lighthouse and heads back to check on it while Yuri leaves to catch the ferry home. Climbing the stairs to the switch, Gabe turns it off and is shocked to see a girl’s face for a moment, which sends him hurrying back out. Shaken up, he tells Yuri over the phone about what he has seen but when Yuri comes up with a plausible explanation, he calms down and tries to forget about it.

Back home, a series of strange things happens around the flat before the girl reappears and tells Gabe she is Rebecca Strand and confirms Callie’s suspicions that she and her father were murdered. Contacting Callie, a nervous Gabe is persuaded to return to the lighthouse together with the blogger and Yuri where Rebecca reveals herself to him again. Telling him about her murder, Rebecca asks for the group’s help in vanquishing Viker – the evil ghost responsible – and locating the missing ghostlight which will enable them to do so. Can Gabe and the others find the ghostlight before Viker does? And if they can, will they be able to destroy the malign spirit once and for all?

It’s seems a bit of an insult to call this a ghost story – it is so much more than just a simple haunting or bad-ghost-bears-a-grudge-against-the-living kind of read. Rebecca becomes a huge part of Gabe’s life and their relationship becomes quite deep and intense as the action unfolds, as they really grow to care about one another. In Viker, we have a thoroughly nasty and twisted baddie – one with no consideration or empathy for anyone else, living or dead, and a hidden agenda that only becomes clear partway through. As Rebecca and her new, living, friends take him on, it is unclear as to which side will be victorious right until the end.

Ideal for those teenage readers who love a scary read to get stuck into over the darker autumn evenings, this is one that I very much enjoyed. My enormous thanks go to Guppy Publishing and to Net Galley for my virtual read. Ghostlight is on sale now.

A fun, Ya Read of Ghost Adventures.
This book was lighthearted and very teeny.

For those in school, it’s fun and different.
The storyline is quite unique- I love the lighthouse element. However if you’re looking for scary or terrifying, thriller suspense this is not the right book.

It’s very easy to read and well written.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC✨

"Ghostlight" by Kenneth Oppel is genuinely engaging. It's not your run-of-the-mill ghost story; it delves into deeper themes, which kept me interested throughout. The pacing is brisk, so there's no chance of losing interest—you'll be flipping pages just to see what happens next.

I found the characters in this book particularly relatable. They're grappling with real-world issues, like family dynamics and emotional struggles, in addition to the haunted setting. The story is about more than mere scares; it actually touches on some heartfelt themes.

That said, the plot does have a tendency to veer towards the predictable. Just when I expected some out-of-the-blue plot twist, the story stayed on a familiar path. It would have been more compelling with a few unexpected turns, hence my 4 out of 5 rating.

Overall, if you're into stories that are not only creepy but also emotionally nuanced, "Ghostlight" should be on your reading list.

We adored this book, but a couple of the older children had read some of this authors work previously and had been impressed so had expected this to be good. A super spooky story that pulls you in from the start and holds you till the end. The characters are great and you can't help rooting for them. A great Halloween read.