Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab

Publisher – Scholastic

Published – Out Now

Price – £7.99 paperback £5.66 Kindle eBook

Where there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows ... unless it's the other way around?

Cass thinks she might have this ghost-hunting thing down. After all, she and her ghost best friend, Jacob, have survived two haunted cities while travelling for her parents' TV show.

But nothing can prepare Cass for New Orleans, which wears all of its hauntings on its sleeve. In a city of ghost tours and tombs, raucous music and all kinds of magic, Cass could get lost in all the colourful, grisly local legends. And the city's biggest surprise is a foe Cass never expected to face: a servant of Death itself.

Cass takes on her most dangerous challenge yet...

For me a sign that an ongoing book series is going to be good is when a book starts playing with the format and the reader’s expectations. Readers get so used to structure A that going to Plan B takes us by surprise. I’ve really enjoyed both previous entries in Victoria Schwab’s Cassidy Blake series ( Tunnel of Bones and City of Ghosts ) a middle grade horror fantasy series and now with the newest book Bridge of Souls the game is changed; the wider world is expanded, and the stakes get truly personal making reading this a dark delight.

To summarise quickly the series. Cassidy Blake is currently travelling around the world with her parents who are making a TV show as the Inspectres – looking at famous haunting location. For Cass this is an issue as she sees ghosts and can cross into a supernatural version of the world known as the Veil. Cass is an Inbetweener – after a near death experience she can see and also when required stop a ghost. She also has a best friend in Jacob who saved her life in the original incident but who himself is a ghost. Next stop is New Orleans and Cass expects yet more ghosts and hauntings to prevent. At which point a strange visitation that Cass glimpsed just as her last adventure ended starts to make their presence known and Cass also finds she is definitely not alone in her skills.

Initially this story starts like any other and when we hear of a serial killer known as the Axman who haunts New Orleans we immediately can see a confrontation to come but then out of nowhere prepare for a big left turn. Cassidy finds something else is now after her! Something much more powerful than the spirits seen to date and suddenly Cass needs to learn fast about her new enemy and as a consequence the wider world Inbetweeners like her live in. We discover more about a supernatural group known as The Society of the Black Cat and the return of the awesome Lara, the Inbetweener we met in the first story who explained Cass’ powers. This story of fun adventures gets darker and we see a wider world than we’ve usually expected making it engross.

Higher stakes also make for a more powerful story and this time there is a big emotional weight to the tale. Cassidy just when she feels comfortable with her powers discovers a world and danger she may not be able to beat. Even worse she could lose not just her own life but her friends as both Lara and Jacob find themselves in the firing line too – this is a story about facing your own fears even when you know you may be about to lose, and it makes for a gripping tale as we see the trio’s earlier lives and they’re made to battle their own demons. Because we’ve now spent three books with the characters, we are very involved in their fate.

Schwab also makes the series work through their writing as the story is always told in Cass’ voice. We see in New Orleans a city where life and death is a lot more celebrated than in previous locations and Cass being so used to seeing death as something to be hidden finds that both fascinating and scary. The dialogue and observations from Cass are funny and sometimes poignant as she is learning to be her own person and not tell her parents everything about her life. This time by making the focus of the story more on Cass rather than a ghost attacking others the moments of horror here feel a lot more chilling and while for adult readers this is mild it is still a creepy and atmospheric tale.

I think this story could work well for new readers as we always get a quick recap of what is going on, but long time series fans will also find lots to enjoy here as certain plot points now get explored further. Characters putting themselves on the line; wit, adventure, and a worry about what lurks in the dark or even the afterlife awaiting you made this my favourite entry in the series to date and suggests bigger and stranger adventures are still to come. Well worth your time to pick up!