The story: Gabe thinks his adventures with Seth in the woods behind his house are just a game. Little does he know that the evil Hunter is more than just an imaginary enemy. Now both boys are running to keep just a step ahead of this monster from the past, trying to keep themselves, their families, and even their town safe. But the Hunter has more tricks up his sleeve that they ever imagined...
June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG-13; Sexual content G; Nudity G; substance abuse G; magic and the occult PG-13; GLBT content G; adult themes (death of the main character!) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.
Liz's comments (with spoiler): Poblocki does a good job of ratcheting up the suspense a bit at a time as the kids work to solve the mystery of the Hunter: who he is, and how to fight him. Ain't gonna lie, though--killing off the main character is a pretty extreme move for MS fiction, even if the kid is willing to die to protect his friend.
Annotation with spoilers: Gabe's family's house burned down earlier this year, so they're staying the summer with his grandmother, Elyse, until they find another place to live. Before starting at his new school, Gabe has made friends with Seth, who lives at the bottom of the big hill where Grandma's mansion-like house is situated. They play a fantasy game in the woods, with Seth as Wraithen of Howler's Notch, and Gabe as "Meatpie" of Castle Chicken Guts. Small weird things happen as they play, but not enough that Gabe starts connecting the dots just yet.
The boys find an old pile of rocks, haped something like an altar, that they decide is the Hunter's fort, and they get ready to dismantle it. But just as the top rock goes flying, Gabe very clearly hears a voice saying "DON'T!" very urgently--enough that it freaks him out and he stops. But Seth uses an old M80 grenade and blows the thing up. Near the same time, Seth confides in him that his older brother, David, used to play this game with him, but that about three years ago, David disappeared after a big fight with their mother, and has never been seen again. Next time the boys go out to the altar tree, the pile of stones has been reassembled.
Upon starting school, Gabe is suprised to find that (unlike at his old school) he's not a dork or an outcast. People are willing to befriend him and let him sit with them at lunch...but it becomes apparent very soon that Seth is a social outcast, the one who for whatever reason has been chosen by the rest of the school to be lowest kid in the pecking order. Even though he's had fun with Seth over the summer, Gabe starts distancing himself from Seth, just to enjoy the feeling of not being the picked-on kid for a change (even though he knows this is wrong and unfair). Seth first tries to sit with the group at lunch and, being told he's not welcome, pours chocolate milk on one girl's head and gets suspended. When he comes to Gabe's house to apologize, Gabe says he's not going to play the game anymore, and that he doesn't want to hang out with Seth. Seth, angry, threatens that "The Hunter will come for you." Gabe shuts the door.
One reason that Gabe was made fun of at his old school is that his father is a puppet maker in the Jim Henson tradition, and the kids all called him Puppet Boy. When his parents go out for the evening, his new friends come over to the house (an old mansion, really) and end up asking for a tour. Gabe purposely doesn't take them into his father's studio, where his newest creation, amna-sized puppet named "Milton Monster" is hanging. The kids are freaked out by a growling sound in the hall, and next thing you know, Milton Monster seems to have come to life in a very unfriendly way. It falls to the ground when they confront it, but it was pretty freaky; and the next morning, Milton Monster is gone. When Gabe's dad forces him to go with him to confront Seth about it, the other boy denies any involvement.
In the meantime, a dark shadow starts to be seen around the town. Gabe feels it watching him; other people have reported it too, and he even thinks his grandmother has seen it, although she's unwilling to discuss it. Even the science class's pet rat has disappeared...only to reappear days later as a pile of bleached bones. Gabe's friend Mazzy goes out to see Seth and get his take on the happenings around the town; although sullen, Seth insists he has nothing to do with them.
In the meantime, Gabe's grandmother finally tells him about her friendship, 50 years ago, with a young man named Mason Arngrim who lived with his evil aunt, Verna Hopper (this turns out to be Seth's great-grandmother). He was unwanted in the home, and grandma Elyse, then a teen herself, befriends him, but after Mason's aunt burns his stories, and Elyse's accompanying illustrations,
On Halloween, the school bake sale is disrupted by an M80 explosion that blows up a chocolate cake and sends people reeling. Then, during that night's haunted house event, the shadow comes out of hiding and chases them around. One of Gabe's friends ends up in the school pool and nearly drowns; when Gabe gets home, he hears from his grandmother that his little sister, toddler Miri, has disappeared (his parents are out). Gabe, deathly afraid that the shadow has kidnapped her, runs down to Seth's house to see if the other boy has seen anything. And when he gets there, he makes the terrible discovery that Seth's barn is on fire, and hears the wails of his little sister coming from inside. He runs in and saves her, barely getting both of them out in time.
Since it's Halloween, and the worst day of the year for spirits manifesting themselves in the real world, he and Seth realize that the Hunter isn't done for the night. They also realize that the "altar" they'd semi-destroyed earlier in the fall is the place from which the shadow emanates--so they leave everyone else to fight the fire and make their way through the dark woods. Disturbing the stones of the altar, Seth falls down into what appears to be a well; in trying to rescue him, Gabe also falls down. Injured, he enters a sort of in-between state (between life and death) where he comes into contact with Seth's older brother David, who fell down this same well to his death several years ago. The mystery has never been solved until now. David tells Gab his story, and tells him that he must keep refusing the Hunter's offers to join him so they can continue playing the game forever--because if he agrees, he'll be dead.
When Gabe awakens the next morning, he explains what's happened to Seth--so when the Hunter shows up and makes his offer, Gabe is surprised and horrified when Seth chooses to continue in the game so he can see his brother again. When the Hunter drops a huge rock down the well with the intent of killing Seth, Gabe plunges over to save his friend--and in doing so, is killed himself.
The story concludes with the townsfolk rescuing Seth, bringing up Gabe's body, and finding and burying the bones of both David and Mason (the Hunter), which assures that their spirits will now cease to roam the earth. Seth has a difficult time dealing with his guilt, until he goes to visit Gabe's Grandma, who advises him to simply be thankful for the gift Gabe gave him. Adding her advice to his new reality that he's no longer the social pariah he once was, thanks to Gabe's friend Mazzy, Seth realizes that he can in fact be thankful, and go on to live his life.