Review: Mistwalker by Saundra Mitchell

Genre: YA Paranormal
Published: February 4, 2014 by Harcourt Children’s Books
Length: 322 pages
Source: Harcourt Children’s Books (ARC)

“When Willa Dixon’s brother dies on the family lobster boat, her father forbids Willa from stepping foot on the deck again. With her family suffering, she’ll do anything to help out—even visiting the Grey Man.

Everyone in her small Maine town knows of this legendary spirit who haunts the lighthouse, controlling the fog and the fate of any vessel within his reach. But what Willa finds in the lighthouse isn’t a spirit at all, but a young man trapped inside until he collects one thousand souls.

Desperate to escape his cursed existence, Grey tries to seduce Willa to take his place. With her life on land in shambles, will she sacrifice herself?”

I really found this book weird. By the sound of the summary, I thought it was going to be about Willa going to an adventure into seeking the Grey Man for help. Instead, what I got out from this book is that there are two plots: Willa helping out her family, and the Grey Man looking for someone to take his place. I think the whole two plots thing just threw me off. I feel like the story wasn’t in-depth enough since it has two plots.

This book is told in first person point of view of Willa and the Grey Man. I found the characters unusual as well. Although I understood Willa’s actions and decisions, sometimes I just did not understand why she would do what she did. I found myself confused and wondering why she did that which made me kept on reading, but my questions weren’t answered. The Grey Man was a pretty weird character too. The author gave us a very brief background which left me unsatisfied. Like, who the heck are you? I also found the parents very weird. Like Willa, I don’t understand at times why they acted a certain way. I needed more explanation. I feel like the author assumes that the readers understand what she’s trying to convey within a snap.

Overall this book was just weird in general. It would have been so much better if the situations were elaborated, and if there were some more background to the Grey Man. After reading the book, I was left thinking, “what did I just read?” I knew the basic plots, but things just did not wrap up. There were just some weird events that I thought was irrelevant or confusing. It was a so-so book. Other people liked it, so if you want to read it, my suggestion to you is to borrow it from the library.