Far Far Away

I am cheating a little because we don't actually have this book in the library yet.  It is on it's way, I promise!  Despite this, I had to write my review while it is still fresh in my mind because I loved this book!  It is the perfect blend of realism, fairy tale, mystery, and horror.  In fact, I'm not quite sure what section to put it in.  I should just make a section called "Awesome Books That Defy Categorization."

Jeremy Johnson Johnson hears voices, one voice in particular.  It's Jacob Grimm.  Yes, that Jacob Grimm, collector of fairy tales.  Jacob is stuck as a ghost because he has left something, he doesn't know what, undone.  He wondered the earth searching in vain for his brother Wilhelm  until he heard about the boy who could hear ghosts.  Since that time, he has been Jeremy's best friend in the small town of Never Better.

Jacob hopes that protecting Jeremy from a mysterious person known as The Finder of Occasions will help him pass on.  The only problem?  He doesn't know who this person is, only that he is a threat to Jeremy.

Aside from his friendship with a ghost, Jeremy leads a fairly lonely existence.  When his mother left years ago, his father hid away from the world in a deep depression, and Jeremy was left to fend for himself.  Now in addition to the looming specter of the Finder of Occasions, the Johnson home is in foreclosure, and Jeremy may soon be homeless.

Jeremy's life will take a turn for the interesting one day when flame-haired beauty, Ginger Boultinghouse, takes an interest in him.  Ginger starts to break loner Jeremy out of shell.  Even as Jeremy starts to feel real happiness, danger creeps ever closer.

You must read Tom McNeal's new book.  It is just so wonderful and charming and complex and steeped in the ancient world of fairy tales.