Gr 4–6—In this sequel to Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (Grosset & Dunlap, 2012), the protagonist and his friend, Fernie, are facing a new and terrible foe named October. He is especially dangerous to Gustav and his family of living shadows because he is a shadow eater. Readers learn more about Gustav and his family, the history of his home, and the dangers facing everyone should October, disguised as a creepy ice-cream salesman, obtain the Nightmare Vault. As Fernie and Gustav move through the Gloom Mansion, more and more truths of Gustav's past are revealed to them, including the fate of his missing parents. Margiotta's illustrations, complete with large emotive eyes, are a delightful addition to the opening of each chapter. The climax is predictable, and there are places where the author spends a great deal of time giving exposition rather than showing action, but the plot is likely to engage reluctant readers with a taste for the strange and unusual.—Wayne R. Cherry, Jr., First Baptist Academy Library, Houston, TX

In a sequel that cycles around the same track as the opener, Castro sheds light on the past and nature of the aptly named Gloom mansion and the saturnine lad who lives there alone with armies of animate shadows. Just as in Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (2012), Fernie What, recently moved into the house across the street, joins her new friend Gustav in a long flight through the eerie mansion's seemingly endless halls and rooms. They are pursued this time by October, a relentless shadow- (and people-) eating creature disguised as a decrepit ice-cream man (spooky!) who is after the hidden, ominously named Nightmare Vault. Despite quick visits to a Gallery of the Almost Famous, a prison for evil shadows and like quirky locales, the chase turns tedious as the children pass through dozens of doorways and up or down more dozens of flights of stairs on the way to a climactic, predictably resolved face-off. Along the way, between moments of contrived melodrama, Gustav drops needlessly strung-out revelations that explain the house's origins, his lack of parents and other mysteries. A die-cut cover scene and Margiotta's chapter-head views of huge-eyed gamins posing in canted settings add to the pervasive air of strangeness, but it's still a slog. (Fantasy. 10-12)