Dangerous Spirits

So, to be totally honest, I did not like this one as much as the first one - for several reasons.

Henry and Vincent are both keep secrets from the other. Vincent's secret is referenced a handful of times, usually in conjunction to how strange Henry is acting. Henry's secret is referenced roughly every time he takes over the narration, influences most if not all of his actions and is pretty much his entire story arc in this book. What's more, his secret is a direct lie. (I think Vincent's is, too?) I do not like secrets being kept - especially lies and even more especially when the secrets and lies are in such intimate relationships. (Also, Henry is lying to literally everyone. Everyone!)

When the truth does come out (maybe somewhere around the 50% mark) things did improve for me, which resulted in a higher rating than I had been expecting up until that point.

I find the secondary characters in this book insufferable and I do not want to spend time around them. (Not Jo and Lizzie. I am fully convinced that Jo and Lizzie are main characters and deserve a spin off of their own.) While I didn't love the secondary characters in the first book, I didn't hate spending time around them. In this book, I don't even want to read their conversations.

Finally, and this is just a minor preference, I prefer the haunted house stories over the more haunted area, haunted woods that this book features. Not a huge deal, but just a small preference.

This series still seems a little bit like Whyborne & Griffin Lite to me, but I'm starting to enjoy it on its own terms. Both Henry and Vincent seem a little more sure of themselves than W&G, so there's a tad bit less of that “oh, what can he possibly see in meeeee, I'm nothing and he's everything.” Vincent's Native-American heritage has an interesting twist - he's shunned for his skin color, but he wasn't raised to know any traditions or rituals, so he never falls into the “noble savage” stereotype. In fact his reaction to trekking through the wilderness is pretty entertaining. Henry's personality is closer to Whyborne's albeit with more sexual self-confidence. I would welcome more development of secondary characters Lizzie and Jo (maybe even a romantic interest for Lizzie who can appreciate her).

All in all, I'm still along for the ride.