Ghost Hunter is a thrilling adventure story by Michelle Paver. It's the sixth and final installment of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, which follows the adventures of a boy named Torak, in a prehistoric world of clans, magecraft and demons. Judging by the fact that Ghost Hunter won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize last year, you’d imagine that it must be something special. But I’m going to give it a little review and tell you what I thought of it.
The book certainly gets off to a flying start, with Torak encountering the ghost of his deceased father, which drives his actions for a large portion of the book. The antagonist of the book - the last of the Soul-Eaters, Eostra - is sending a series of plagues and severe weather conditions, which are described in vivid detail. In the opening scenes, the entire Forest is covered with a swarm of grey moths, and they’re described so vividly you can almost feel them crawling on your skin.
As with any sequel, the beginning of Ghost Hunter could be a little confusing for people who are new to the series. I think it is handled quite well though, and the story unfolds in such a way that new readers will be able to grasp the story and characters even if they don’t fully understand everything at first. Michelle Paver prefers to get straight into the action, and explain things later, which is always a good thing.
One of the things that stands out about Ghost Hunter is its central characters. The narrative frequently switches between the point of view of Torak, his friend Renn and their animal companion, Wolf. Each of them has a very distinct personality and view on the world, and the scenes shown from Wolf’s viewpoint are particularly interesting; Michelle clearly had a lot of fun describing her fictional world through the eyes of an animal. She really gets into the mind and soul of her characters, making them real and memorable.
Michelle writes in short, punchy sentences, and manages to say a lot in just a few words. I think it’s her use of adjectives that does it; all it takes is a quick description of whirling snow, or a sputtering torch, to conjure up a really vivid image. Her writing flows so seamlessly, you forget that you’re reading a book. I find that if I open one of her books at random, and start reading a paragraph, I end up getting drawn into it and before I know it I’ve read several pages, even if it’s a scene I’ve read several times before.
Like the other books in the series, Ghost Hunter has a dark, haunting and atmospheric quality. And Ghost Hunter is definitely the scariest of them all. The descriptions of the tokoroths, the demon children, really linger in the memory, and I found myself glancing over my shoulder a few times to make sure there weren’t any behind me! Eostra is very cold and emotionless but in a good way; it makes her really creepy. Although she doesn’t actually appear much until towards the end of the book, she’s a powerful presence throughout. The first scene where she does appear really made me jump, I didn’t see it coming at all.
The climax is very important, as it isn’t just the climax of Ghost Hunter, but of the entire series. I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s full of surprises I didn’t see coming. I did think it felt slightly rushed; you get this sense of something really big being set up, and then it’s all resolved in a single chapter. But it’s still definitely a very satisfying pay-off, especially for those who have been following Torak’s adventures from the beginning.
Overall, I think Ghost Hunter is a terrific read, and it works on many different levels. It’s a satisfying series finale for devoted readers, but can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone story. It’s an edge-of-your-seat adventure story for older children and young people, but adults will also be enchanted by its rich prose and vivid settings. If you want an epic, thrilling, emotional and original story to be absorbed by over the summer holidays, then Ghost Hunter is well worth a look. And its snowy, wintery descriptions will definitely cool you off…
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