The Light (Morpheus Road #1) by D.J. MacHale

Overview:

Marshall Seaver is being haunted.

It begins with mysterious sounds, a fleeting face outside a window, a rogue breeze—all things that can be explained away. That is, until he comes face-to-face with a character who only exists on 
the pages of a sketchbook—a character Marshall himself created.

Marshall has no idea why he is being tormented by this forbidding creature, but he is quickly convinced it has something to do with his best friend, Cooper, who has gone missing. Together with Cooper’s beautiful but aloof sister, Sydney, Marshall searches for the truth about his friend while ultimately uncovering a nightmare that is bigger and more frightening than he could ever have imagined.

My Review:

I designated 2018 to be the year to finally tackle my out-of-control TBR book case (yes, I have a whole case just for TBR - don't judge) and this book is one that has been sitting there for a couple years.  I have a tendency to pick things up on clearance if they look even remotely interesting and The Light happened to fall into that category, even though it's a departure from my normal genre of historical murder mystery and I'm glad I finally picked it up because it was an enjoyable read.

It's classified as Teen Fiction but it's more paranormal than fiction.  In any event, in the first book in the Morpheus Road trilogy, we follow Marshall Seaver who is still dealing with the death of his mother two years prior.  School has just ended for the summer and he has all kinds of plans to fill it up until his best friend Cooper gets in serious trouble and his parents take him to the lake for the rest of the summer.  Marshall is pretty bummed out until a comic book character he created comes to life and starts haunting him.  On top of that, Cooper has gone missing from the lake so Marshall decides to go to the lake to help search for his best friend.  He also hopes that by leaving his house and concentrating on finding Cooper, the hauntings will stop.  Unfortunately, they only get worse.

The main characters in this book were well done, but I would like to have seen the secondary characters a little more fleshed out.  They weren't bad but they needed a little more substance.  I would also like to have known Marshall's exact age.  It says he's a year younger than Cooper's older sister Syndey who is a senior in high school so I'm guessing he's around 16 but he seems a lot younger.  That changes by the end of the book and I understand what the author was trying to do but it seemed just a tad exaggerated.  Again, just a minor thing and it didn't take away from the story at all but just something to note. 

The plot was well-paced, if a little simple but since the book is geared towards teens, I won't pick on that too much.  The details of the town, lake, and houses were well done - just enough to allow the reader to picture everything but not so much that it bogs down the pacing of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It's a quick, easy read that let's you escape to a different world for awhile without overworking your brain.  Perfect for a summer read! 

There are (obviously) two more books in this series so when I get them, I'll let you know.

Have you read this series?  If so, what did you think and do you have any recommendations for similar reads?