One Mischief Night, Zora takes the fight to the ghastly pests. Enjoyable, feel-good story.
Title: The Meaning of Mischief Night
Author: R. Van Brabant
Genre(s): Young Adult Fantasy
Word Count: 80,000
Publisher: Library and Archives Canada
Publication Date: 2/13/2024
Summary: Every kingdom has their pests: rats, locusts, flies, and the like. But Zora’s kingdom of Piosanto has a whole different level of pests that must be endured every year: ghosts. These ghosts cause no end of trouble for the people of Piosanto and have left the orphanage where Zora grew up in ruin. Frustrated with seeing her world crumble around her, Zora decides she can no longer stand by and watch the ghosts destroy everything. So, she puts her budding tinkering skills to the test and creates a weapon specially crafted to take out the invading phantoms. However, she finds herself in over her head once the invasion begins and nearly falls victim to the revenant forces.
Even though her crusade falls apart, the Queen approaches Zora to accompany her best soldiers to take the fight back to the Ghost Realm itself. Their mission is to vanquish Enochtis, the Ghost King and spearhead of Mischief Night and put an end to the chaos once and for all. But as Zora finds herself in the fabled Ghost Realm, she discovers secrets about the origins of Mischief Night that will change the course of history for both the kingdoms of the living and the dead.
My Review:
Zora considers herself lucky to live in the Kingdom of Piosanto. If not for the ghastly pests, the kingdom would have been perfect. Every year on the night christened “Mischief Night,” the people of Piosanto must endure a ghoulish invasion of ghosts that destroy everything in sight, including the ruined orphanage in which Zora lives. Fed up with the yearly terrors destroying her home, Zora puts her budding tinkering skills to the test to design a weapon to take the fight to the phantoms. In over her head, Zora’s solo mission fails, but she attracts the attention of Piosanto’s Queen who offers Zora a new mission that could end Mischief Night forever.
Van Brabant does an excellent job with the characters of The Meaning of Mischief Night. Zora is a 15-year-old orphan growing up in a world where ghosts are real, and these phantoms thoroughly enjoy stirring mischief during their once-a-year spree of mayhem and chaos. I especially love the interpersonal relationships among the characters. It is so refreshing to have so many friendships. And the bond between Zora and the guardian of the orphanage, Junpei, is so sweet! Every teenager struggles to find his or her identity yet Junpei is involved and understanding of Zora’s feelings of uncertainty. When Zora goes to the ghost realm, she meets the quirky ghost trio and the feared Ghost King who is completely unfazed by Zora and her rage. So many interesting characters to meet and explore.
I enjoyed the worldbuilding especially when we travelled to the ghost realm. Sidewalks that fly, laundry that slink away, Zora has to conquer her ghastly chores before she can get back to the land of the living. I enjoyed the imaginative nature of this story. Each location in the ghost realm felt as though it belonged to that world while being vividly described as a separate entity. I loved the cohesiveness of the world-building.
Overall, this story is a cozy, feel-good adventure story. I recommend reading it.
ARC received from Reedsy.com