Today on the blog, I review A Council of Ghosts by Ryan Harper Jones. The author contacted me through my website requesting a review and provided me with an ARC. Since he described it as a young adult fantasy, I decided to give it a read.
A dynamic trio of youngsters finds danger and rollicking adventure after stumbling upon a portal to a fantastic world.
A Council of Ghosts is an adventure story that will appeal most to middle-grade and younger YA readers. There are many characters and locations for the reader to keep track of. However, the young trio of Saul, Ruby, and Henry are the characters who matter most and will appeal to those age groups.
The plot starts off slow but builds up a spritely pace once the young adventurers are sucked into a secondary world of magic, fantastical creatures, and war. I saw a few reviews stating the story is reminiscent of Harry Potter. Personally, I didn't get strong Potter vibes. Mr. Jones's work reminds me more of C.S. Lewis's Narnia for its portal fantasy vibe.
Having read and reviewed several self-published novels this past year, I believe this is one of the better edited. I didn't notice the grammatical and continuity errors present in some self-published works. My one nitpick is italics are overused for emphasis.
Middle-grade readers will find Saul, Ruby, and Henry and the adventuresome storyline appealing. High school aged YA readers might find the story too young.