Product Description

Colin Jackus doesn't want to be in the school play and is angry because he's been forced into it. But gradually he starts to realize that it's not just a play - the sinster story they are acting has its roots deep in cruel reality and despair. Strange things are happening among the cast of the play and misery is seeping through them. So when the leading actor starts to take on the evil personality of the character he's supposed to be playing, Jackus decides to delve deeper and try and stop the disaster that threatens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1454005 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Ingram
Colin Jackus senses that something very strange is happening during rehearsals for the school. The cruelty of the play is becoming very real and haunting the play's cast. It is up to Colin and his friend Ann to stop vengeful spirits from making their final move. Ages 10 and up. First U.S.

About the Author
Gillian Cross is one of Britain's most prominent children's authors. She has won both the major awards - the Whitbread Children's Novel Award and the Carnegie Medal - and many others.

Customer Reviews

Tense, realistic, and intriguing, even for older kids.
I first discovered this book when I was in junior high school and enjoyed the way the author blended relatively ordinary youth experiences of cruelty, ostracism, gang-type bonding, and petty misbehavior with a disturbing representation of historical fact. Marshall, the callous but popular young star of a middle school production of "Sweeney Todd", becomes the channel of the play's evil, robbing the students around him of self-respect, fostering suspicion, and creating fear, much as his Victorian-slum counterparts did in days past. The handling of the narrator's relationship with Marshall and with the insecure and unattractive Ann is realistic and well-resolved, and the tension is effectively built, a series of innocuous clues leading to the supernatural conclusion. If the book has any weakness, it is the rather hasty and hey-presto ending, which technically satisfies but does not really do justice to the lengthy buildup.