The benevolent spirit of Jacob Grimm has haunted teenager Jeremy Johnson Johnson since he was a child. Jeremy lives in the small American heartland town of Never Better, and the ghost has provided far more support and guidance across the years than the boy's depressed, reclusive father. A loner by circumstance (no one wants to befriend the kid who hears a voice in his head), Jeremy is shocked but pleased when classmate Ginger Boultinghouse invites him to the bakery for cake. Later, Jeremy is quick to agree when Ginger asks him to participate in a harmless prank against the well-liked baker. Jeremy is caught by the seemingly vindictive Deputy McRaven but doesn't rat on Ginger, and a friendship blossoms. In a town quick to judge, Jeremy has finally found a real friend. But there is malevolence in the air. Jacob, the novel's narrator, senses it but doesn't know the source, although Deputy McRaven seems a likely candidate. By the time Jacob realizes his mistake, both Jeremy's and Ginger's lives are in peril. Never Better feels like the gingerbread house in the forest, and Tom McNeal lulls readers into a false sense of ease, despite Jacob's repeated warnings, before revealing danger inside. He uses fairy tale archetypes and patterns that add texture and depth to what could be a contemporary news story of a deranged criminal. The gruesomeness is largely psychological or implied, and is always counterbalanced by Jacob's presence, as his genuine concern for Jeremy and others is never in doubt in a novel in which many of the characters reveal unexpected depth. (Age 14 and older)

It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn't even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he's able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it's been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn't been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm. Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion. And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings. . .

Young adult veteran Tom McNeal (one half of the writing duo known as Laura & Tom McNeal) has crafted a novel at once warmhearted, compulsively readable, and altogether thrilling--and McNeal fans of their tautly told stories will not be disappointed.