Ghosts of Eden

I decided to pick up a scary book for Halloween from the library. This was on the display and they didn't have the one other people in one of my book clubs was reading. This looked interesting and was. It is a short read and it only took me two days to read. At first it was very scary, a haunted house with evil, maybe even violent, ghosts. The main character was likable and had a horrible past. As she tries to release the ghosts from "the Serpent" she encounters many of the ghosts of the town as well as her neighbor with Down syndrome and his teacher. They are all destined to deal with "the Serpent" and the battle part as well as the actual haunting in the house is great. I had a hard time putting it down. However, part of it just didn't work for me. This may be a spoiler but oh well... "the Serpent" is an alien trying to take over a planet his race created. He is ancient and angry. I think the alien part is too much. I didn't need the history of him or what he was... the lack of info would have been better. However, i loved the description of the ghosts and how they died. I loved the movie 13 Ghosts because of the background given to each ghosts character, and it was similar here. The reason the main character is "the Impure" is just not enough though. She should have committed something worse to be considered that. I also appreciate how she made it historical with the legendary fire but it just took much away from it. The scariness was lost with the fire and that was sad... and the ending was a little too happy!

All in all a good scary book with some very gruesome parts. I might read it again some day but skip the parts about the aliens and the fire. I give it three and half bookmarks out of five.