Viking Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published March 15th.
This book was much darker than I expected. I was anticipating ghosts, mysteries, and odd passages. I got all that plus black magic. The author grabs you and runs down the hallway through shadows and dark magic. There's a taste of steampunk as well as horror in this story.
The students are warned at the train depot not to go to the castle, but they were sent by their parents and they do what they were told. What they find is a strange lady that owns the castle and some odd teachers. None of the staff is very friendly. They are told to stay on their own floor of the castle and not wander. Kat and her brother and sister meet the other students and find out that they get locked in their rooms at night. It's odd.
It starts getting even weirder when the students begin to vanish. Kat doesn't believe in magic but she's going to have to if she wants to save her family and friends. Lady Eleanor is no lady and she has bad habits.
The story is very suspenseful. The plot is horrifying and you're not sure who is going to win until the very end. This one sent a chill down my spine.
