book review: the spirit in the crypt
When fifteen-year-old Jonathan Roberts goes out with his friends on a summer night, he doesn’t expect to be forced to enter a crypt by Francis Everton. To be forced to look at skeletons decaying in their graves. To hear the voice, screaming at him. Screaming into his mind. Commanding him to leave.
What the voice in the crypt belongs to, he can only wonder. A demon? A ghost? It gives him nightmares for weeks afterwards. Of skeletons strangling him. And then, bizarrely, of a girl from his school, making the long walk across the graveyard and entering the crypt. Never to come out before his waking.
When he returns to school in September, he never expects to learn that something awful has happened to the girl, turning his fear to panic.
Panic which will force him to unravel the mystery of the crypt, and in doing so, many mysteries about himself.
The Spirit in the Crypt is Book One of the Jonny Roberts paranormal YA series, and author Alexander Lound’s debut. It’s an atmospheric, almost Gothic read, following the protagonist Jonny as he navigates a terrifying experience in a graveyard and some unearthly dreams alongside the demands of school and recently-separated parents.
I’ve never read much in this genre, so I can’t comment on the tropes or expectations, but Lound’s prose is well-crafted and his main characters well-drawn. The depictions of Jonny’s experiences in school and with his peers are almost uncomfortably spot-on, with an interesting, sympathetic exploration of the realities of teenage masculinity. I particularly empathised with the depiction of Jonny’s relationship with his mother, which had a lovely parallel arc with a character later on in the novel. Lound doesn’t shy away from the complexities of these teenage relationships, or from the realities of domestic violence and its effects on women and children, and the book is stronger for it.
The Spirit in the Crypt is suitable for readers in the 15-18 years bracket. Lound weaves a number of complex themes throughout the narrative, including teenage friendships and relationships, domestic violence, the silencing and anger of women, the changing nature of families, and the impact of adult relationships on children, which I think might make the novel a little too daunting for much younger readers.
Strengths:
A well-drawn, complex main character;
An intriguing, atmospheric plot;
Intricate, realistic relationships;
Empathetic, thoughtful, and gentle explorations of teenage masculinity and complex adult relationships.
One sentence summary:
A complex, well-crafted debut.
Thank you to the author, who gifted me with a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.