Ghostlight is a 2022 ghost novel by Kenneth Oppel.
Rebecca Strand was just sixteen when she and her father fell to their deaths from the top of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse in 1839. Just how they fell—or were they pushed?—remains a mystery. And their ghosts haunt the lighthouse to this day....
Gabe tells this story every day when he gives the ghost tour on Toronto Island. He tries to make it scary enough to satisfy the tourists, but he doesn’t actually believe in ghosts—until he finds himself face to face with Rebecca Strand.
The true story of her death is far more terrifying than any ghost tale Gabe has told. Rebecca reveals that her father was a member of the Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead”—malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But the Order has disappeared, and Viker’s ghost is growing ever stronger.
Now Gabe and his friends must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls...
Not to be confused with the book Ghost Light by Clare McNally.
This book includes examples of:
- Bad Boss: Viker mistreats Tommy Flynn when the two partner up, even using him as a Human Shield against the ghostlight's power. Upon amassing his army of ghosts, Viker notes his intention to use some of them as food, devouring an electrician ghost. When the heroes are tearing him apart with the ghostlight, Viker devours fistfuls of his own followers in an attempt to replenish himself.
- Big Bad: Captain Nicholas Viker, the ghost responsible for Rebecca and her father's murder, and in the present seeks the ghostlight to use its power for nefarious purposes.
- Blood Knight: Viker fought in numerous battles across his lifetime, with it being mentioned that he likely didn't care which side he was fighting on, as long as he was fighting. At one point, he fondly recalls the battlefields of his past, referring to it as "wonderful carnage".
- Broken Bird: Rebecca Strand was murdered at a young age, was forced to watch her father be killed and have his ghost devoured, and has spent centuries as a ghost with very little contact. This has left her bitter, short-tempered and vengeful against Viker, while also resenting that she never got to live a full life.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Gabe does this to his father's ghost over him leaving him and his family in favor of a new lover, though it does end in a reconciliation.
- Climbing Climax: The final battle takes place at the top of the CN Tower.
- Creepily Long Arms: Viker has these, which he uses to attack his victims even when not being in the same room as them.
- Disappeared Dad: Gabe's father left to be with another woman, and then got run over by a car while texting. Gabe both misses his father while also resenting him for leaving them, feeling that he didn't care about them.
- Disney Villain Death: Both Rebecca and her father were killed by Viker tossing them off the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse.
- Downer Beginning: The novel opens with Rebecca and her father being murdered by Viker.
- The Dragon: Tommy Flynn becomes this to Viker in exchange for the latter not devouring him.
- The Dreaded: In life, Viker was so bloodthirsty and insatiable in battle that even his fellow soldiers feared him. In death, he's this to the Order, being considered their biggest threat.
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: One of Rebecca's primary means of communicating with the living group is through Gabe's phone, sending text messages and emojis.
- Energy Absorption: Ghosts can draw upon a living person's energy via clasping with them.
- Friendly Ghost: The heroes come across several throughout the novel, who even help combat the wicked ghosts. Rebecca herself is mostly this, though she has a wicked temper.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The main group of heroes consist of Gabe and Yuri (male) and Callie and Rebecca Strand (female).
- Ghastly Ghost: The wakeful and wicked dead, ghosts who died filled with hatred and seek to harm the living. Viker is the worst of them.
- Ghost Invasion: Toronto gets subject to this when Viker uses the ghastlight to summon and empower the wakeful and wicked death and unleashes them to wreak havoc.
- Ghostly Chill: Ghosts are frequently noticed to have an icy touch.
- Ghostly Goals: Rebecca seeks to defeat Viker as well as free her father's ghost, who is trapped inside of him.
- The Ghost King: Viker becomes this after turning the ghostlight into a ghastlight and using its power to bend the other ghosts to his will.
- Gunman with Three Names: One of the ghosts the heroes encounter is an aggressive duelist named Malcolm Macbeth MacCready. He puts his skills to use near the climax, helping to take out several of Viker's underlings.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Viker captures the ghost of Gabe's father, threatening to devour him if Gabe doesn't hand over the ghostlight. Gabe attempts to, but Rebecca intervenes, prompting Viker to follow through on his threat.
- Human Shield: Viker uses Tommy Flynn as one when the heroes attempt to use the ghostlight on him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Viker is a cannibal ghost — a ghost who eats other ghosts.
- Just Desserts: Viker ends up devoured by his own dragon at the end of the novel.
- Karma Houdini: Tommy Flynn, who aided in Viker's plot and previously devoured Edward Shaw's ghost, not only gets off scot-free by the end, but takes the ghastlight with him.
- Karmic Death: Viker, who's spent his entire undeath eating other ghosts to gain power, ends up devoured himself by Tommy Flynn, his lackey who he mistreated and attempted to devour previously.
- Life Drain: Ghosts can suck the life energy from humans by clasping with them. Edward Shaw was killed by over thirty ghosts clasping with him at the same time.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Viker grows numerous limbs as a result of devouring so many ghosts, which he uses to combat the heroes.
- The Order: The Order, a secret society of keepers dedicated to protecting the world from wicked spirits since the time of ancient Greece.
- Parents in Distress: Rebecca seeks to free her father's ghost, who has been devoured by Viker. Later, Gabe attempts the same when Viker devours his own father.
- Robbing the Dead: Gillian Shaw acquired the ghostlight from her deceased great-grandfather Edward by grave-robbing his crypt.
- See the Invisible: Ghosts can become visible by clasping with the living, or through the use of ghostlights and light launchers.
- Spooky Séance: Gillian Shaw regularly hosts seances using the ghostlight, which allows her to see and speak to the dead. Gabe and Rebecca end up infiltrating one of her seances in order to steal the ghostlight, with Viker and Tommy Flynn staging an attack with the same intentions.
- Soul Eating: Viker cannibalizes other ghosts in order to become more powerful.
- Weakened by the Light: Ghosts can be harmed and destroyed by the ghostlight, and later by the light launchers invented by Yuri, though powerful ghosts, such as Viker, can resist its effects to an extent.
- Would Hurt a Child: One of the ghosts Viker devours is that of four-year-old Charity Bowles.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Viker devours one of his ghostly underlings the moment they're done repairing the ghastlight's beacon on the lighthouse.
- You Killed My Father: Not only did Viker kill Rebecca's father (and her), he also devoured his ghost. Part of Rebecca's Unfinished Business is freeing the trapped soul of her father from Viker.
