White Crow

Let me just start by saying I should not have read this book in the dark.  I should never read Marcus Sedgwick books in the dark.  Once again, Sedgwick takes historical events and shapes an incredibly believable and incredibly creepy story out of them.

Set in a small sea-side village on the western coast of England the story is told from three interwoven perspectives: Rebecca has just moved to the village with her father under mysterious circumstances.  Ferelith has lived in the village her whole life but is now an orphan.  The priest lived over 200 years ago in that same village.  Over the years violent storms have sheered away the land, causing the village to change shape as buildings and graves from the old churches fall into the sea.  Time has also faded the memory of rumors...rumors of terrible and gruesome experiments performed in the manor house by a rich doctor.  As Rebecca forms an uneasy and sometimes volatile relationship with Ferelith, they start to unravel the mystery of what happened all those years ago.

All of Sedgwick's books are short and even though this one has female main characters for the most part, I still think boys will eat this up.  I'm not a fan of the horror genre but there is something so, dare I say luscious, about the way Sedgwick writes that I can't help myself!  For me though, I have to read something funny and light after finishing his books!