Daylight Saving

by Edward Hogan

Overview

Can you save someone from something that’s already happened?

Daniel’s expectations for his forced vacation with his father at the Leisure World Holiday Complex are low. He hates sports, and his father is mostly lost in drink and depression. But then he sees a strange girl swimming in the fake lake, and everything changes. Lexi has a smart mouth and a killer swim stroke, but dark secrets swirl around her. She’s got bruises and cuts that seem to be getting worse instead of better. She’s always alone. And her watch is ticking backwards. When a dark figure begins to stalk Lexi and Daniel, the truth must come out. This gripping ghost story will raise goose bumps and questions: does a traumatic past mean the future is a foregone conclusion?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763661953
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	HL570L (what's this?)
File size:	717 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Edward Hogan's first adult novel, Blackmoor, was short-listed for the London Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and the Dylan Thomas prize. This is his first young adult novel. He lives in the U.K.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 8 Up—Daniel's father dragged him to Leisure World for a little holiday-something to do after Daniel caught his mom cheating. The sports-averse teen would rather be anywhere else, until he meets beautiful, smart, and troubled Lexi. She has injuries that seem to get worse every day, and she won't talk about them. Lexi finally has to tell Daniel what's going on when he gets caught in her same time loop: two years ago, she was dragged into the woods and killed; now she lives each year in reverse until that one daylight-saving hour when the clocks get turned back and she relives her attack. The book succeeds in being creepy and atmospheric, and while several plot elements are easily predicted, Hogan still builds suspense and anticipation. Background characters, such as Daniel's father and their neighbors, are full people with their own issues. There are some gory descriptions of Lexi's wounds and the book has some scare potential, but nothing that average readers can't handle.Brandy Danner, Wilmington Memorial Library, MA

School Library Journal

Daniel’s tale is a sturdy coming-of-age narrative . . .The strength of Hogan’s complexly drawn relationships grounds readers in this unique and eerie sort-of ghost story.
—The Horn Book

A teen spends a harrowing week at an English holiday sports complex, where he befriends the ghost of a young woman doomed to repeat the last brutal hours of her life. . . .Lexi’s appropriately quirky and enigmatic, while Daniel’s a vulnerable, likable (but unlikely) hero, whose confidence grows through his sympathetic, quasi-romantic encounter; his first-person narration adds immediacy and resonance. An intriguing ghost story.
—Kirkus Reviews

This is a well-paced and emotionally effective tale, and fans of the recent narrated-from-beyond books will appreciate seeing things from the point of view of those left behind.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Hogan not only delivers chills galore but also creates empathy for his cast of vulnerable, idiosyncratic people with their own desires to change the past. The disturbing undertone to the plastic fun of Leisure World provides a nice atmospheric counterpart for this unusual ghost story.
—Booklist

The book succeeds in being creepy and atmospheric.
—School Library Journal

This novel will appeal to teens on many levels. It is not only a riveting mystery and a spine-tingling ghost story, it also deftly explores real-life trauma faced by young people.
—Library Media Connection

From the Publisher

A teen spends a harrowing week at an English holiday sports complex, where he befriends the ghost of a young woman doomed to repeat the last brutal hours of her life. Since Daniel's mother moved out, his father's been drinking and depressed. Daniel feels responsible for the breakup because his father forced him to admit he accidentally saw his mother kissing another man. Daniel's overweight, classmates bully him, and he hates sports, so when his father takes him to a sports center for a week, he expects the worst. While his father resorts to alcohol, Daniel meets a mysterious girl swimming in the lake. Wearing a watch that ticks backward, Lexi's covered with cuts and bruises, invisible to everyone but Daniel and definitely peculiar. He discovers she's a ghost, murdered during the hour the clocks turned back to end daylight saving time two years before. On the anniversary of her death, she relives the terrible ordeal. Determined to break the cycle and release Lexi's ghost, Daniel finds the courage "to touch someone and then let them go" as the fatal hour approaches. Lexi's appropriately quirky and enigmatic, while Daniel's a vulnerable, likable (but unlikely) hero, whose confidence grows through his sympathetic, quasi-romantic encounter; his first-person narration adds immediacy and resonance. An intriguing ghost story. (Ghost story. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews