Sci-Fi & Scary

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for review consideration.

Lilac Skully and the Carriage of Lost Souls is a great follow-up to the first Lilac Skully book. The cover is equally beautiful as well. Amy Cesari has created something special in Lilac Skully, a nine (and three-quarters!) year old girl who is pushed outside her comfort zone by circumstances outside her control. In the first book she was dealing with her fears of her own house when her father disappears. Things quickly go from bad to worse, and soon Lilac finds herself in a vaguely Home Alone-esque situation, albeit with a bit more feeling of danger involved. One of the things that I appreciated was that Lilac isn’t some spunky go-getter that’s all motivation and no brains. She’s scared, she has doubts, and she’s not at all sure about what she’s doing. However, she recognizes that there’s no one else but her to do it, and so she gets it done.

Well, she could simply tell an adult, but that would kind of ruin the whole plot behind the books. So we’ll ignore that in favor of the story that Amy Cesari tells instead.

The plot of The Carriage of Lost Souls sees Lilac interacting with ghosts outside the ones she just got used to being around. Hatching a daring rescue plan. And finding out that sometimes people change for the better. I liked that the author worked that in there, with hearkening back to something that was talked about in the first book. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t bad guys in this book, because there definitely was! There was a lot of action in this book, and I laughed at some of the imagery provided by this even while I was eagerly turning the pages to see what happened next. The pacing, and the dialogue were lovely as well.

Now, I will say that one thing about the Lilac Skully books is that they do feel like chunks of one story instead of proper mini stories within a larger story. You DO get a mini story arc, so don’t think she pulls those cliffhangers some indie authors do where it just stops halfway through the book to get you to buy the next one. Her cliffhangers are much more mild in comparison. However, I still left this one feeling vaguely unfulfilled because it felt like she didn’t bring this story arc quite to it’s natural conclusion.

Overall, though, Lilac Skully and the Carriage of Lost Souls was an entertaining read, and I can’t wait to read the third entry into the series. Amy Cesari is doing good.(And, I have to say it, especially with the “Nine and three-quarters” age, Lilac still reminds me of Luna from Harry Potter!)