The Tale of the Ghost Riders

Are You Afraid of the Dark? #7

by John Vornholt

Stampede!

Josh feels all alone since his wild and crazy brother Will died. Now he's galloping toward trouble with his new friend Carlos as they trail an old Native American skinwalker to a cave amidst ancient ruins, hoping to discover his magic. When a mountain lion corners Josh and scares Carlos away, the skinwalker reappears with a warning: unless Josh changes his ways he'll come to a bad end like Will. If he's looking for trouble, the desert will give him trouble.

The desert is watching. Will is watching--from Beyond.

But the boys can't resist the chance to get even with an enemy rancher. That's when the pale riders arrive, thundering down from the sky. . .

Genres: Horror, Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 1996

About the author

John Vornholt also writes as Caroline Goode.

Reviews

[Lelouch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josh hates a "rich" man in town, who drives a green pickup truck. Josh blames him for his father and brother's death. He is repeatedly warned that the "ghost riders" will get him if he goes down a bad path, but Josh and his best friend Carlos tries to slash tires, create stampedes, and scare the man anyway. By the end of the story, the ghost riders take the rich man away. Most of the "Are You Afraid Of The Dark" stories feature the supernatural element fairly early on. They make a few questionable appearances, but their first real appearance isn't until the last few pages.

his "best friend" carlos is awful. Carlos constantly abandons josh. Carlos flees when they're caught trying to slash the guy's tires, and even when josh gets attacked by a mountain lion. With friends like Carlos, who needs enemies?

Second, I don't see how the villain is evil at all. All I've seen is the kids messing with him, and he's naturally angry. There's nothing wrong with foreclosing on a house when they stop making payments.

[Lacy Lovelace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m shocked at how well I liked this story. I’ve never been one to be into the western type genre so I was afraid this story was going to be a bore but I was pleasantly surprised! This one was told by Gary and I feel like it was definitely more of a Tucker story to me!

It’s all about the forces of good and evil. Carlos and Josh are best friends. They are always finding theirselves in deep trouble and especially when it comes to Henry Akers. He took advantage of Josh’s dad while he was sick and took their land. Josh’s dad died and the anger of what had occurred sent Josh’s brother, Will, to spiral out of control. Will also died in a car accident and left Josh and his mom to pick up the pieces. Now, Josh is out for revenge against the man he thought caused all of his trouble, Henry Akers. He doesn’t realize that the ghost riders are watching and he might be the next one they pick up to rally the herd....forever!

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my 100th read this year, I was going to read a Mike Gonzo book…. but I got the wrong book in the mail, twice in fact. So the next best thing was this. This is a very different kids horror read; it takes a lot of Native American Cultural Inspiration and uses things like skin-walkers (not the bullshit they’re now known as today), ancient spirits, and a thematic element of grief and cultural guidance. It’s a refreshing read for this genre and clearly was written by someone with deep care for the cultures they reference and the morals they convey. Speaking of morals—there’s a great message within this story about the paths a life can take, and it uses the elements of grief and willpower (also Will, the character) to really hone in on it. There’s a nice legend that’s building up in the background and some solid concepts played out here. It’s well-written, has some decent payoff, and some of the best backstory/character depth I’ve ever seen from a kids horror story. Also, it’s western themed. Dope. Now, I wish this book was all that and more, but sadly, there’s a huge issue that weighed it down: the pacing. This book is one of the slowest kids horror books I have ever read, taking its sweet time getting to the revenge point and the actual showing-uppings of the advertised creatures. This needed something more to merit its length, and whilst it’s a great story, I can’t forgive it for feeling way too long—and mind you the story itself is only 113 pages + 4 pages of Midnight Society stuff. That’s not very long, and it wasn’t, but this somehow didn’t merit that number almost all. There’s also about 20 pages of fat—excluding how slow the book already was all-round—that could’ve been cut between pages 70-90. It’s just slow exposition for the climax and could’ve been wrapped up far quicker. All-in-all, the book is too long for what it wanted to be, and needed something other to merit the page count wholly. Plus, there’s some lightly unresolved things with Carlo’s grandfather and untapped potential with them and the main character’s mother. But, this is still a great read at the end of the day. Overall, 8.5/10. Flawed intensely but still a stellar tale—just needed to be a whole lot faster. (P.S. would’ve gotten this out sooner if it weren’t for the new Goosebumps game dropping and messing me up lol).

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Mariella Esquivel Tello · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good story and all, and I understand that the moral is to try to stay true instead of going down the wrong path...

But to be blunt, the Sheriff's words truly rubbed me the wrong way.
"Life is full of people like Henry Akers. You can't fight all of them, you can only avoid them or live with them."

Bah humbug! I vehemently don't believe such enabling talk. No one should have to put up with bullies, racists, ableists, violent mysogynists and reverse ageists.
In the words of Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."