Review by Jill Williamson

The Kings lead a double life. At school, they try to pretend like nothing has changed, but at home, they’re completely focused on finding their mother before anyone finds out that she’s missing.

A stranger is seen lurking around the house several times before he announces himself. He is Mr. Taksidian, a powerful businessman in town who is set on buying the house from the Kings. When they refuse, Mr. Taksidian looks for other ways to get the Kings to leave. The truth is, they would be more than happy to leave this house and town behind, but not without their mother. The family unites to do everything they can to withstand the forces they are fighting against.

This book was filled with exciting scenes. David is whisked back to a WWII battle, then later both boys find themselves in the Civil War. David makes enemies at school as well. This book didn’t feel like it would stand very well on its own. It felt like a part two and I think reading the first book is necessary to know what’s going on. Still, it was entertaining and fun. It also ends on a cliffhanger, so, I’m off to read book three to know how this story ends. Recommended.

Age Range: 12-16

Genre: Suspense

Part of a Series: Book two in the Dream House Kings series

Pages: 290

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Released: 2008

Don’t forget to leave a comment, you’ll be entered to win a copy of this book.

Twelve year old David King’s life is turned upside down. He and his siblings are about to start a new school in a new town, but that’s the least of his troubles. The creepy, old house his family just moved into has strange things happening in the attic. These strange happenings defy explanation, such as, why his mom disappeared, and where she went.

His family spends their days pretending to live a normal life, while their nights are consumed with unlocking the key to finding his mother. In the midst of turmoil, a strange man appears and is determined to drive the King family from their new home.

Robert Liparulo has spun a superb, complex web of mystery, intrigue, and action. A fantastic paranormal story filled with accurate history and God’s grace. Lots of research went into this series. Once you read the first few lines of “Watcher in the Woods” you won’t be able to put this story down. Even though this is the second in a series, you won’t feel lost, but you will feel the need to read books one and three.

Favs (without spoilers):

Character: Xander—he and I think alike 

Part: wind walking, I felt myself right beside David  

Dislikes

Character: Taksidian—a guy you’ll love to hate

Part:  That I didn’t have Book 3 in the series, (awesome cliff hanger)

Xander and David King can’t believe this is happening. Their family has recently moved into a creepy old house with secrets around every corner. Sounds are never what they seem in the house. The hall linen closet is a portal to a locker at their school. And who could forget the strange clearing in the woods out back where you can actually float on air? All of that seems normal compared to the secret rooms that act as portals to other worlds. Now a member of the family has been kidnapped by someone from these other worlds and the King’s must work together to bring them back.

If things weren’t bad enough, a stranger shows up who tries to run the family out of the house. He seems intent on destroying the family’s reputation and soon has the local authorities on his side. Now the King’s must deal with a new school and unfair perceptions as they secretly band together to find a way to bring back their missing loved one. The more they search the more they begin to understand just how dangerous this house is.

Robert Liparulo opens this second installment right where the first left off. Immediately we are sucked back into the tension and mystery that made House of Dark Shadows so enjoyable. Round two is just as exciting as we are taken on another whirlwind thrill ride that never lets up. David King gets most of the spotlight here and it’s a blast getting to know this character more. We are treated to more alternate world adventures that are chocked full of action and suspense. Even more secrets are revealed and more questions created, adding to the clever plotlines that Liparulo masterfully weaves. Never is it obvious where the story is going and that’s what makes it so addicting. As with the first book, the themes of love and family are beautifully explored bringing a welcome dose of heart to the story.

Some readers may be turned off by the “juvenile fiction” tag on the back of the book. Don’t let the marketing fool you! This is a quality series that readers of all ages will enjoy. There are enough thrills, chills, mysteries, and action to keep all ages coming back for more. Liparulo’s die hard fans will love this series and new readers will be charging to the nearest book store to discover his other works. This is top-notch storytelling on every level!

As a child, I would often have dreams about a mysterious blonde, blindfolded and all in white, silently calling out to me for help. She would appear framed in mirrors, reaching blindly towards me, or dead in a ruined coffin. When I related the dream to a friend, he assured me it was not mine at all. Rather, the girl was my misty memory of an obscure live-action Disney film, The Watcher in the Woods. The “dream” was in fact several suspenseful scenes from the science fiction/horror movie, which features a girl who was accidentally sent into another dimension – switched with an alien – during a solar eclipse. Why I came to think of it as a dream was clear: Karen’s costume design was theatrical and symbolic in nature, a softening filter made the images hazy, and little to no sound heightened the suspense of the scenes.

In “Prosthetic Memory: Total Recall and Blade Runner”, Alison Landsberg relates Herbert Blumer’s scientific finding that the mass media can implant memories into audiences via film. (LM 240) Audiences do not simply associate themselves with characters in the film, but incorporate the images and sounds fundamentally into the self. (LM 242) Landsberg views this as an extension of themes developed in contemporary science fiction films dealing with “prosthetic” (i.e. synthesized) memory.

In her essay, the author argues that post-modern film analysis privileges the time before audience’s relationships to events were not so mediated that people could not differentiate between the real and hyperreal. (LM 243, 240) Critics such as Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard express nostalgia for this time – the “prelapsarian moment” – when it was still possible for viewers to experience and participate in true memory rather than inauthentic memory. Landsberg argues, however, that films such as Total Recall and Blade Runner work against this idea. The protagonists of both films don’t concern themselves with their past. This is because an authentic memory is not necessarily superior to a fabricated one, and because both memories exist. (LM 243, 244) Decker and Quaid forge their own identities based on the present moment. Thus, memory is less about the past than the present. (LM 244) A foil to this argument can be seen in the film Dark City. In the course of the narrative, John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) attempts to unravel his memories to escape the strange people chasing him. As it turns out, these aliens have scrambled memories into a “cocktail” and literally inject them into men and women. By repeatedly changing humans’ identities in this manner, the aliens can keep them ignorant of their captivity. Only with the help of someone with authentic memories (Kiefer Sutherland) can Murdoch learn the truth (via injection of authentic memories) and liberate the humans.

In the “Postfuturism” chapter of Vivian Sobchack’s Screening Space, she also identifies the importance of the coherence of identify. (SS 272) In the postmodern era, Sobchack feels that identity is shaped mostly by space and surface rather than the temporal. Landsberg also asserts that an emphasis on the surface typifies postmodernism. (LM 244) Thus, continuity of time is less important. Science fiction films are either nostalgic or celebratory in regard to this fact. (SS 273) In the first case, the films draw on the past in terms of plot and mise en scène (such as the antiquated fashions seen in Dune). In the second, the films glory in discontinuity editing that confuses the viewer’s sense of time. The Watcher in the Woods is of the first type, as it uses gothic horror and antiquated locales to cleverly mislead the audience into thinking the film is a ghost story (rather than science fiction).

Thus, postmodern memory and its repercussion on how films conceive of time/space can be added to a list of the elements of science fiction film. While critics readily discern the genre’s predisposition to look toward the future, they often neglect the just as conspicuous tendency for the films to look into the past.

I’ve included some screenshots from The Watcher in the Woods. I thought they might be useful in understanding why I subconsciously found the scene so gripping. If you haven’t seen the film, I would suggest it. (Annabel, at the very least, got some laughs when she revisited it.) I think it really embodies the generic tension between horror and sci-fi that Sobchack identified, even more so than Metropolis. (More on that later.)

:: Bibliography ::

• Sobchack, Vivian. Screening Space. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
• Redmond, Sean. Liquid Metal. New York: Wallflower Press, 2004.
• The Watcher in the Woods. Dir. John Hough. Perf. Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Carroll Baker, and David McCallum. 1980/1. DVD. Anchor Bay Entertainment. April 2, 2002.