BOOK REVIEW - DEEP DARK AND DANGEROUS - not recommended

BOOK REVIEW – Deep Dark and Dangerous

Recently I was straightening up my daughter’s room and discovered an unfamiliar book.  I asked about it and discovered it had been a gift from one of her teachers at school.  Concerned that it looked like an unsuitable book for a Christian teenager, I took the book and read it to see what the content was.  I discovered that it was not a book that I want my daughter or any impressionable teenager to read.  I write a review here to provide other concerned parents with an informed criticism of the book so they may decide for themselves its suitability.

Author: Mary Dawning Hahn

Publisher: Sandpiper Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, New York

Year Published: 2007

Category: Fiction, Ghost Stories

Technical Information: Paperback, 187 pages, no index, no illustrations, forward or introduction.

ISBN-13: 978-0-547-07645-4

Retail: $5.99 USD

Summary:  This is a teen genre ghost story about a young girl who vacations with her aunt at the family’s beach house that has been unused for decades.  A mysterious tragedy during her aunt’s and mother’s childhood resulted in an aversion to returning to visit the cottage. As an adult, the aunt goes back ostensibly to work on her paintings, but also with an unspoken desire to resolve issues related to the tragedy.  The ghost of a young girl who died in that tragedy comes back to haunt the family and manipulate them into bringing closure to the circumstances surrounding her death.

Main Characters:

Alison “Ali: Dwyer – niece and central character

Dulci Thornton Madison – Alison’s aunt

Teresa “Sissy” Abbot – ghost

Emma Madison – Alison’s younger cousin and charge

Claire Thornton/Dwyer – Alison’s mother

Edith – the doll

Jeanine Reynold Donaldson – a neighbor familiar with the events

Setting: Gull Cottage on Sycamore Lake near Websters Cove, Maine

General plot.  In 1977, Teresa Abbot is playing with the two Thornton sisters, Dulci and Claire.  A mean prank by Teresa centered around the doll, Edith, leads the three girls to take a boat out on lake Sycamore  Lake at night where they quarrel over the doll.  The doll and Teresa end up in the lake and drift away from the boat.  Dulci and Claire drift back to shore and return to their home without telling anyone what happened to Teresa, who drowns.

Thirty years later Dulci returns with Allison as a babysitter for her niece Emma, who befriends an uninvited visitor who calls herself “Sissy.”  Sissy turns out to be the ghost of Teresa Abbot, who is still mean and prone to trouble making.  At first the visitors think Sissy is just a local girl, until she reveals her real identity to Alison and alternately coerces and cajoles her to bring Dulci and Claire to admit their complicity in her death and help recover Teresa’s remains for proper burial.  After considerable suspense, a convoluted plot development and other complications this is accomplished.  Theresa and her family have closure, Claire and Dulci make amends and Alison and Emma escape further hauntings.

The story is well written, follows a cohesive and logical story line and is successful in holding the attention of the reader.  As a Christian parent I find the book objectionable because although it makes an effort at addressing the need for resolution and justice and has an overtly moral theme, it dabbles in occult subjects and does not address important issues through Biblical principles.

Teresa’s meanness and disregard for her own and others' safety is in fact what results in her death by accidental drowning. At no point in the story is Teresa apologetic or repentant for what she did.  Nor does she admit any role in the circumstances of her death, but squarely blames the two sisters, Dulci and Claire, who are in fact Teresa's victims.  The story assumes that the appearance of Teresa as a live (though subtly unnatural) girl is a plausible phenomena and gets no technical explanation.  This clearly contradicts scriptural principles that the dead do not communicate with the living but are only impersonated by unclean spirits.  Moreover, during the development of the relationship between Alison and Teresa, Alison actually invites the ghost to sleep with her in her bed at night and Alison consults “Sissy” in multiple instances.

The practice of consulting with the spirit of a dead person, in this case to learn of the circumstances of their death and the location of their remains, even if for ostensibly good purposes, is clearly occultist in nature and prohibited. Inviting the spirit to enter the home and then sleeping with it is both a dangerous form of spiritism and perverse behavior.  It suggests that such spirits may be placated by normalizing them into household life when in fact they should be promptly exorcised.

This is a dangerous and objectionable book and should not be read or kept by Christians, especially youth.  The objection comes because it portrays a perverse and unscriptural approach to resolving an accidental death and consequently aberrant behavior. The story also demonstrates a tolerance, even approval for occultist practices such as consulting spirits of the dead and placating them through ceremonial ritual.  It is dangerous, especially for teen readers, because it not only is wasteful of reading time when so much better literature is available, but it can lead to the mindset that ghosts may be consulted and even consorted with for potential benefit and without consequence. The story also ignores the real source of resolution which is admission of sin and repentance with restitution (when possible).  It is especially dangerous because the good quality of the writing provides an attractive and persuasive vehicle for its perverse and erroneous content.

As an final point of interest, the story seems to imply that the bizarre artwork of Dulci is precipitated by her troubled conscience, but any change in her behavior as a result of her admission of complicity in Teresa’s death is not discussed. My final word on this is that the book should be kept out of Christian homes and not circulated.