This is my last horror / scary read for the month. I've loved this series from its inception, so it's kind of sad to read the end.
The first Darkdeep did that rarest of rare things in middle grade horror -- made us laugh out loud while getting our hearts racing! The second was set on Halloween, my favorite holiday, and played with reality TV and plausible deniability. (See my reviews, Dark Reads for Dark Month)
The third one is more about revealing the Rift's backstory, developing the characters, Opal, Nico, Tyler, Emma and Logan and showing how they live up to being descendants of the original Torchbearer Order, and delivering the long-promised final show-down with the big bad creature from the Rift that's threatening Earth.
It starts the kids noticing a variety of things following and stalking them. But these are not like the things that usually come out of the Darkdeep well in the bottom of the boat, the fantastical creatures of Logan or Nico or Tyler's rampant imaginations. These things are much darker, deadlier, and can't be dispelled with the Torchbearer knives.
The is what the Torchbearers are pitted against, and at least one of their parents -- Logan's dad -- knew it was coming and preferred to raise Logan in ignorance and denial. But exactly what he knows, he stubbornly won't share. Opal connects with the Thing from the jar to bring forward a French girl, a shipwreck survivor from antiquity and the Rift's first victim. She miraculously survived in the dystopic wasteland left behind when these darker creatures finished consuming that world.
And Tyler is obsessed with his new role as Beastmaster, which just may get him eaten. Emma's still a presence, but not like in the second book.
Then Nico finds out his father is about to be transferred to Yellowstone National Park, where a geyser is belching foul smelling gasses and yellow liquid. Nico finds a cavern with the Torchbearer Order markings, and it becomes painfully clear the Rift at the bottom of the boat is not the only one on Earth; there are multiple Rifts, each a possible entry point for these foul things.
I wont' spoil the ending, but like I said, I both loved it and was kinda sad to know there probably won't be another, but at least we got to learn the origin of the Rift and the Torchbearer Order.
Enjoy!
