344. Dark Souls by Paula Morris

Dark Souls by Paula Morris
Published December 2012 Scholastic

From the publisher:
Miranda Tennant arrives in York with a terrible, tragic secret. She is eager to lose herself amid the quaint cobblestones, hoping she won't run into the countless ghosts who supposedly roam the city. Then she meets Nick, an intense, dark-eyed boy who knows all of York's hidden places and histories. Miranda wonders if Nick is falling for her, but she is distracted by another boy-one even more handsome and mysterious than Nick. He lives in the house across from Miranda and seems desperate to send her some sort of message. Could this boy be one of York's haunted souls? Soon, Miranda realises that something dangerous-and deadly-is being planned. And she may have to face the darkest part of herself in order to unravel the mystery-and find redemption.

Two ghosty stories back to back, although this one doesn’t have any laughs.  What it does have is a teenage girl recovering form the death of her best friend and a visit to the most haunted town in England, York.

The Tennant family have decided to take a working holiday half a world away from their lives in the US in the hope that this change of scenery will help daughter, Miranda and son Rob deal with the trauma of the accident they were involved in.  What Miranda hasn’t told anyone is that she saw her friend’s ghost on the night that she died, and since then she has been seeing ghosts everywhere.  York probably isn’t the best place for her then, as they have a whole tourist industry that revolves around the ghosts of the town.

Initially disarmed by the visions she comes across, Miranda soon meets a mysterious boy who can see ghosts too, and he shows her a side of York that most people don’t see ( because they can’t see ghosts!).  What might have had an inkling of a holiday romance gets confusing and weird as Miranda finds out that Nick is not telling her the whole truth about his past, and then there’s the link between him and the ghost in the house across the lane.

As well as being a good ghost story and a good mystery, there’s also a lot of interesting historical information too.  Being the nerd that I am, if I read about something that sparks an interest while reading a novel, I have to go and find out more, which I s what I did with this book.  The most interesting for me, but also the most horrifying was the massacre of 150 Jews in 1190. I won’t go into details here, but you can read about it in this book, or here’s a link for more information.

  

http://ddickerson.igc.org/cliffords-tower.html

See below for a few more links you may find interesting:

If ghosts are your think, have a look at the databse, where you can search ghostly sightings across the UK.

http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/index.htm

A large part of the story revolves around the York Minster, here’s a link to for more information and some great images of this beautiful building

http://www.yorkminster.org/visit-york-minster.html

Who will like this book: Girls and boys age 14+
Read it if you like: Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan