Into the Grey

by Celine Kiernan Narrated by Gerard Doyle

Overview

"I think the fire changed us-me and Dom. I think that's how the goblin-boy was able to see us."

After their nan accidentally burns their home down, twin brothers Pat and Dom must move with their parents and baby sister to the seaside cottage they've summered in, now made desolate by the winter wind. It's there that the ghost appears-a strange boy who cries black tears and fears a bad man, a soldier, who is chasing him. Soon Dom has become not-Dom, and Pat can sense that his brother is going to die, and their overwhelmed parents can't see what's happening. Isolated and terrified, Pat needs to keep his brother's cover while figuring out how to save him, drawing clues from his own dreams and Nan's long-ago memories, confronting a mystery that lies between this world and the next-within the Grey. With white-knuckle pacing and a deft portrayal of family relationships, Celine Kiernan offers a taut psychological thriller that is sure to haunt listeners long after it has ended.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Pat’s narration is marked by vivid descriptions and consistently polished, well-paced prose... The otherworldly goings-on are grounded in the family lives of the village their Nan grew up in, adding intriguing nuances to the psychological drama. A gripping, highly original ghost story.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Kiernan’s beautiful and haunting novel is full of mystery and suspense with continuous plot twists and turns. The narrative voice is compelling and honest while capturing the emotional terror the teen has to face. The refreshing, multidimensional characters drive the story line and readers will connect with them because of the poignant and touching moments. A captivating read that combines Irish history with the supernatural.
—School Library Journal

Dom and Pat share a deeply loving bond, which makes Pat’s panic over Dom’s transformation palpable. In stark, eerie passages, Kiernan tells a gripping story as much about the love between brothers as it is about ghosts.
—Booklist

Confident, pungent, and poetic. Family love, loyalty, and protectiveness are palpable in a well-drawn cast of characters, and the pace is frequently galvanized with energetic drama and dialogue pierced with Irish dialect.
—The Horn Book

Atmospheric... The tension and atmosphere are genuinely creepy. ... A ghost story that encompasses heartache from two generations and the love brothers have for their twins—both living and dead.
—VOYA

Irish author Kiernan has a taut and atmospheric style, vividly capturing the Ireland of the early 1970s and its earlier twentieth-century shadows. ... This offers a keen poignancy in its revisiting the years of the now old and the long-dead... American readers may not be familiar with the Irish Republican tensions and the period’s cultural landmarks, but they’ll be right at home with eerie, heartbreaking ghosts and a boy’s implacable loyalty to his beloved brother.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This is a mysterious and suspenseful ghost story that will draw readers in from the start. ... Kiernan is masterful in her ability to create believable characters... This is a chilling ghost story that will appeal to fans of the paranormal genre.
—Library Media Connection

The hallmarks of a perfect ghost story — terror, isolation, an unusual setting, the past intersecting with the present — are at the core of this terrific mystery. But what really makes it a stand-out? The deeply emotional connections between the characters. A ghost story with a heart. Love that.
—Justine

If you're in the mood for a scare this autumn, Kiernan's beautiful novel comes highly recommended. Just read it in the daylight, maybe, and don't say I didn't warn you.
—Philadelphia Inquirer

School Library Journal - Audio

11/01/2014
Gr 7 Up—Twins Pat and Dom move with their family to the seaside cottage where they and their large extended family have summered for years after their nan, who is in the early stages of dementia, burns down their home. It's a grim and desolate place in the winter, made more so by the friction between their parents. When a ghost possesses Dom, Pat is afraid but determined to save his brother at all costs. It's a frightening prospect, made harder by having no help, save occasional flickers of reality from Nan. Pat has to cover for his possessed brother while his parents resolve their own issues. It's a long and very scary process that has him questioning his own sanity and wondering whether he has what he needs to pull Dom back alive. This is an involved and atmospheric story, made even more scary by Gerard Doyle's narration. He does a great job of ramping up the tension at the right times. The plot is complex, but those who hang in will be well rewarded.—John R. Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME

School Library Journal

06/01/2014
Gr 7 Up—Set in Ireland in the early 1970s, this story stars twin brothers Patrick and Dom Finnerty, who have their world turned upside down when their house and all they possess is burned to the ground. Displaced, the family moves into their summer seaside cottage. Now in the middle of winter, the cottage seems dull, bleak, and quite eerie. Suffering from horrible nightmares, the boys' bond of brotherly love is put to the test when they discover that the "goblin-boy" is not just a dream. When Patrick tries to rid them of the ghostly creature, it takes possession of Dom instead. Patrick realizes that in order to save his brother's life he must befriend this ghost and figure out what it wants and why before time runs out. The protagonist's journey of self-discovery uncovers numerous family secrets, forges unlikely allies, and proves that the power of friendship, loyalty, and love are far stronger than he ever imagined. Kiernan's beautiful and haunting novel is full of mystery and suspense with continuous plot twists and turns. The narrative voice is compelling and honest while capturing the emotional terror the teen has to face. The refreshing, multidimensional characters drive the story line and readers will connect with them because of the poignant and touching moments. A captivating read that combines Irish history with the supernatural.—Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2014-05-14
Irish fantasist Kiernan (The Poison Throne, 2010, etc.) explores the dynamics of love and loss.In 1974, 15-year-old identical twins Pat and Dom move with their family into a drab summer cottage after their senile grandmother inadvertently burns down their house. Nerves still raw from the disruption of their lives and the loss of their home, the twins start to have strange dreams. Then Pat hears Dom talking in the night and sees a goblin-boy peering down from the bunk above him. The harrowing series of events that follows convinces Pat that he's losing his brother: Dom becomes possessed by a 10-year-old boy stuck in a gray fog that's neither this world nor the next, endlessly searching for his twin, a soldier who died in the trenches of World War I. Pat's narration is marked by vivid descriptions and consistently polished, well-paced prose: "Yesterday morning, I'd had a brother. I'd had a best friend. He'd been fun. He'd been interesting: my slow-burn, articulate counterweight. Now I was lopsided, a boat with one paddle, rowing frantically and spinning in a slow, maddening circle around the space that should have been him." The otherworldly goings-on are grounded in the family lives of the village their Nan grew up in, adding intriguing nuances to the psychological drama.A gripping, highly original ghost story. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169759112
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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