Dark Forces #11 Waiting Spirits and #12 The Ashton Horror

In Dark Forces #11, Waiting Spirits, Lisa and Carrie are staying with their parents and grandmother in their grandmother's childhood home.  Lisa and Carrie try spirit writing, which summons several spirits to them.  Soon, Lisa realizes that one of the spirits is trying to take over her body.

I like this statement by Lisa's grandmother on pages 96 and 97.

"Your times haven't been so sweet," she said sadly.  "Oh, I don't think it's been all that bad for you.  But the shadows are longer now than they were then.  It all changed in 1945."

Lisa gave her a puzzled look.

"Oh, study your history, child.  That was the year we blew up Hiroshima and learned our planet was as mortal as we are.  I always thought a great dividing line was drawn then.  No one born after that time can understand what it was like to grow up without that shadow."

This resonates with me.  We have now lost even more of our innocence, and the world is very different now than it was when I was growing up in the 1980s.

This is a good book.

In Dark Forces #12, The Ashton Horror, Dennis joins Adrian's fantasy game club.  The club meets in an old cavern that has ancient drawings. Adrian announces that the club will be summoning Mogar out of the past.  The other members think it is all just in fun, but they later learn that Mogar is very real and very dangerous.

The ending of the story is wrapped up way too fast.  Dennis takes some grenades out of his father's weapon collection.  He uses a crowbar to pry the cases open.  I would like to have seen how Dennis would have explained his actions to his father.

I enjoyed this book.

I have created a Facebook group for enthusiasts of vintage teen books such as the ones reviewed in this post.  Please follow this link to join.