I poked around the online catalog of my city's public library system and found exactly one copy of it, residing in the branch just down the street from where I live, its last-known status "on the shelf." So I put in a request for it, and nothing happened. Barnes and Noble will let you order it, but won't carry it on their shelves. And though I've read a number of his other books, it was only quite recently that I found out that the above title is only the first book in the "Norumbegan Quartet." This second book in the series did not prove very easy to come by. Several years ago, during a visit to New York City's Books of Wonder, I picked up a copy of The Game of Sunken Places, by this author I had never heard of, and thought it was great. Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students? Because there's no way humanity can stop them on their own, or at least, the boys don't think so. That's where the Norumbegans went, through the portal hundreds of years ago, and it's up to Greg and Brian to find them and tell them the Thusser are breaking the rules.
Kalgrash shows up, leads them back to the mountain and the portal they almost stepped through in the game in the first book in the room with the creepy, scary arms growing on vines.
They quickly discover the houses are absorbing their occupants. The boys haven't heard from Prudence in two weeks, so they head off to the mansion in Vermont to figure out what's going on. their thoughts and fears are easier for consumption that way. They're flat-out invading, creating time / space distortions that allow them to move into the new subdivision.īut first, they want to prep the human race. The Thusser are not playing games anymore. Then their half-built secretary tries to kill them with throwing stars. Someone or something tries to kill Brian on the subway. The Norumbegans rented the boys a workshop in an old warehouse, and WeeSnig is building automatons to flesh out the noir mystery (think the old TV show, Mike Hammer) of Brian's design. Brian technically gets to plan it, since he won the round for the elf-ish Norumbegans. In fact, by the time the boys realize Prudence is missing and make it to Vermont to figure out what's going on, the Thusser have thrown the rule-book out the window.īrian and Gregory are happy (sorta - divisions between the two, jealousies, are arising) planning the next, and final, game.
Yeah, well, Milton Deatley's back - and although he's a reanimated corpse, he's building homes and cul-de-sacs faster than Gregory or Brian can keep up. Remember the real estate developer from the first book? Sacrificed when he stumbled across the ancient rite that basically started the next round of game play, designed to be Gothic horror by Prudence, the game's previous winner?
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