R. J. Palacio (Author, Narrator), Ian M. Hawkins (Narrator), Listening Library (Publisher)

An Audiobook

R. J. Palacio (author also of WONDER) has written a spooky book about Silas, a twelve-year-old boy who has to rescue his father. A gang of scary horsemen arrives one night, demanding that Silas and his father accompany them.  Their “Boss” wants to talk to Silas’s dad and won’t take “no” for an answer.

Ultimately, Silas is left behind with the promise that his dad will return in one week.  Silas does not believe them. He is afraid he will never see his father again.  His only companion is … a ghost.  Yes, a ghost named Mittenwool by Silas when the boy was just a baby. (Only Silas can see him, but his father knows he exists – you will learn why later.)

And then!!!  A black horse with a white (bald) face turns up. Silas recognizes it as the ride HE was supposed to have taken with the gang.  Now, he decides – against Mittenwool’s warning – to follow the gang and find and rescue his dad.  The horse – which he names PONY – seems to agree, and once the boy is astride with a small pack, they gallop off.  Mittenwool runs alongside.

Okay, that all seems normal (except for Mittenwool), but it gets VERY strange from then on. Silas not only sees Mittenwool, but he can also see the hundreds of woeful, maimed, and mutilated ghosts who inhabit and wander through the scary black forest Silas must pass through.  YIKES!

He meets a creepy Sheriff, who “helps” him along the way (Mittenwool does not like him.) and attempts tasks that no 12-year-old should have to.  He finally finds the hidden place where the men took his father.  Is he alive?

How this plays out, and the ending that quickly goes way up until he is in his twenties, is coincidental and astonishing, but at least you learn about Mittenwool’s beginning. And why Silas took his mother’s violin along when he rode off on Pony to find his father.

The story in this book will stay with you for a long time. (At least it did for me, an adult. I don’t know how kids will think about it.)  It is very well-written and imaginative. The spiritualism in it was a bit off-putting for me, but the horse! Oh, that fine Arabian, bald-faced horse named Pony.  Wow.

The narrator in this Audiobook did a splendid job!