Book Review: The Eye-Dancers by Michael S. Fedison

Twelve year old Mitchell Brant can’t sleep. A seven-year-old “ghost girl” haunts his dreams and begs for help. Soon he learns his friends, Joe and Ryan, are having the same dream. But for the three, what they see in sleep seems much more than a dream. When they wake up, the scraped knee is still scraped, the hurt wrist still hurts.
They turn to their friend Marc, who scoffs at their belief in the reality of the supernatural. He takes it upon himself to watch over Mitchell, Joe, and Ryan as they sleep in Mitchell’s basement. Only that night, the four wake up in an entirely different world. Cars, money, food, history are eerily the same but different. And the “ghost girl’s” picture is all over town; she’s Monica Tisdale and she’s been kidnapped. She has brought them to her world to be her rescuers.
As the boys work to solve the mystery of their new surroundings and to figure out how to help their new friend, each is faced with his own personal challenges and lessons. For Marc, the rationalist, the challenge is to accept the unexplainable. For Mitchell, his family problems and speech difficulties present hurdles. For Joe, his unstable temper is his enemy. Ryan realizes what his social isolation costs him.
The Eye-Dancers taps into the best and most entertaining archetypes of Young Adult Fiction. Like the Wizard of Oz, the four heroes are suddenly transported to a strange land and presented with a villain who must be stopped. Like Dorothy and her friends, each main character emerges transformed by his experiences. And like Dorothy and Toto, the four heroes of Eye Dancers long for home and wonder if they will ever return.
Michael Fedison has lovingly crafted a Young Adult sci-fic/fantasy/mystery novel with wide appeal. His prose is thoughtful and elegant. Not only will young readers, middle school and older, love this book, but adults will enjoy it, too. In her bestselling book, The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin talks about her love for juvenile literature; and she forms a book club with some adult friends to read and discuss juvenile fiction. The Eye-Dancers would be just the book for them. It keeps you on the edge of your seat as you root for Ryan, Mitchell, Joe, and Marc. Will they save Monica? Will they return home? But, at the same time, The Eye-Dancers also poses some deeper and very satisfying philosophical questions. What role do our thoughts play in creating our world? Can everything be explained? I highly recommend it.

The Eye-Dancers by Michael S. Fedison