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Ghost in the Machine by Patrick Carman is the follow up book to Skeleton Creek.  I love this series because of it’s creativity .  If you are not familiar with Skeleton Creek (which you can check out my review and details here), it’s a book which is told in two different formats.  One is the diary of Ryan and the second is the online videos of his friend Sarah.  So basically, after about every 10-20 pages, you’ll set the book down and visit sarahfincher.com.  There is a password provided in the book which will give you access to the videos.  The videos are vital to the story, in other words, no skipping!  I think it’s a great way to get reluctant readers excited and have a “pay off” when finishing reading a block of text.  And it’s a great way to successfully combine two types of media.

Skeleton Creek finished with a huge cliffhanger.  Argh!  I couldn’t wait for the next book.  I had no idea that I would be receiving a copy of Ghost in the Machine, so I know that I let out an audible squeal when I opened a mystery package one day and it was this book!  Seriously, so excited to read this one.

In Ghost in the Machine, Ryan and Sarah are still forbidden to see each other and trying to solve the mystery at the gold dredge, which is haunted by the ghost of Old Joe Bush.  Time is running out because the town has decided it’s become so dangerous that they are going to burn it down.  But things get complicated when Ryan and Sarah uncover a secret society called The Crossbones which keeps the secrets of the dredge and Ryan’s father is in the middle of it all.

This is a great follow-up to Skeleton Creek.  Kids will enjoy the mystery and love getting spooked with the videos.  I remember that I jumped in one video and for another I had to keep pausing it because it was just plain scary.  Such fun!  But nothing to lose sleep over at night – unless maybe you don’t finish the book before you go to sleep which is virtually impossible because you’ll want to read it in one sitting.

The videos do take some time to load so I recommend skipping ahead to the next video as soon as you finish one so it’s already loaded by the time you get to it.  Be warned though, it’s hard to not have your eyes glaze over potentially spoiling text when skipping ahead.   Although everybody is in need of a few acting lessons, the videos are great.  I was hoping for a third book but everything wrapped up pretty tightly.

Which does remind me.  Ryan writes in his journal like ALL the time.  So I was surprised to see at the end of the book he doesn’t write for four days.  His last entry reads like an epilogue.  It wasn’t in his character to not write during those four days where everything gets wrapped up.  And Sarah also writes in the journal at the end too.  I’d much rather her stick to the videos.  So the ending felt a little bit unbelievable to me because they acted out of character.  But all in all nothing to spoil my enjoyment of the book.

My biggest disappointment is that there is not another book in the series.  I’m not ready for it to be over, I’d love to have more.  And the mystery/ghost story is the PERFECT genre for this concept.   October is also a great time to read this book especially together as a family.  I can see everybody gathered around the computer watching the videos and somebody else poking somebody right in the middle of a cliffhanger.  I can see screams.  Oh, I love it.

Great book, great fun!  We are reading mysteries this month for my Children’s Literature Book Club.  I can’t wait to meet next week to see what everybody thought about this one.

So are you up for it?

Links of interest: Maw Books review of Skeleton Creek (including book trailer to give you an idea of video content), more book blogger reviews, Patrick Carman’s website, extensive alternate reality Skeleton Creek game.
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction with video elements, approx ages 9-12
Publisher: Scholastic.  October 1, 2009
Hardcover, 192 pages. ISBN 054507570X
Ghost in the Machine is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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