Fourteen-year-old Jonathan Starling isn't sure how to help his father, Alain, who suffers mental breakdowns. Jonathan only knows that Alain's sickness originated in Darkside-whatever or wherever that might be. When a family friend helps him enter Darkside, Jonathan's amazed: it's a seedy underbelly of London stuck in a Victorian-era time warp, inhabited by criminals, monsters, and combinations of the two. Even if Jonathan does manage to stay alive on Darkside's mean streets, can he ever unearth Alain's secret? And if he does, will anyone in London believe him?
Summary Decent Londoners don’t notice Darkside, a part of the city to which the most criminal and evil elements have been exiled. Darksider William Grimshaw has commissioned Marianne to kidnap two half-Darksider children, Jonathon and Ricky, for use in his Beastilia Exotica. An even more important Darksider, the vampire Vendetta, has his own reasons for pursuing Jonathon. Jonathon’s only hope for unraveling the mystery surrounding his pursuers and his father’s madness is to find the violent creature Carnegie, whose life his father had once saved: Jonathon must make the crossing to Darkside, heading straight into the jaws of his pursuers.
Topics Field trips. The subway. Pursuit. Disappearances. Truancy. Family. Illness. Mental hospitals. Fear. Intruders. Secrets. Books. The British Library. Kidnappers. Escape. Violence. Knives. Attacks. The Thames. Sewers. Police. Investigations. Evil. Pickpockets. Gangs. Werewolves. Bounty hunters. Cages. Animals. Private investigators. False identities. Being recognized. Vampires. Police work. Suspicion. Eavesdropping. Capture. Menageries. Barracudas. Interrogations. Video. Pity. Explanations. Bats. Double identities. Being believed. Police statements. Vanishing.
SRC Level 5.200000
SRC Points 14.000000
Lexile 790L
Trim Size 5 1/2" x 8 1/4"
Language English
JLG Release Date Mar 2008
Minimum grade 9
Maximum grade 12
Reading level High
Format Print
Young Adult Plus (Grades 9 & Up)
Young Adult Plus
Young Adult Plus (Grades 9 & Up)
For Grades 9 & Up
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