The Dark Behind the Curtain

by Gillian Cross

Book Overview

Colin Jackus senses that something very strange is happening during rehearsals for the school. The cruelty of the play is becoming very real and haunting the play's cast. It is up to Colin and his friend Ann to stop vengeful spirits from making their final move. Ages 10 and up. First U.S. publication.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192714570
• ISBN13: 9780192714572
• Release Date: June 1987
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Tense, realistic, and intriguing, even for older kids.

I first discovered this book when I was in junior high school and enjoyed the way the author blended relatively ordinary youth experiences of cruelty, ostracism, gang-type bonding, and petty misbehavior with a disturbing representation of historical fact. Marshall, the callous but popular young star of a middle school production of "Sweeney Todd", becomes the channel of the play's evil, robbing the students around him of self-respect, fostering suspicion, and creating fear, much as his Victorian-slum counterparts did in days past. The handling of the narrator's relationship with Marshall and with the insecure and unattractive Ann is realistic and well-resolved, and the tension is effectively built, a series of innocuous clues leading to the supernatural conclusion. If the book has any weakness, it is the rather hasty and hey-presto ending, which technically satisfies but does not really do justice to the lengthy buildup.