Rating: 3 stars

The selection of paranormal fiction for Young Adult's has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. Some of the entries are so amazing that the reader will be blown away. Most of them though are falling into a middle class that isn't bad but they don't quite have what it takes to make it.

Dr. Sigmundus: The Cracked Mirror is a piece that falls squarely in that middle ground.

The story is a blend of horror, fantasy, and science-fiction and doesn't seem comfortable with any of those genres. Set in an alternate world which is ostensibly under the control of the nefarious Dr. Sigmundus the plot revolves around young Dante and Bea. They escaped from their home in the previous book, The Hollow People, but became separated. Dante finds himself taken under the wing of the area's mortician but Bea ends up right in the control of Sigmundus, working at his museum. The story jumps between Dante, Bea, and Nyro, a young man who stumbles onto a secret military installation with a friend and is never the same after.

With three different points-of-view going on, it seems there is more story that needs telling but the book is so short that the reader doesn't have time to connect and learn about any of the characters. There is simply too much in such a small amount of space.

While it isn't a bad story, it isn't something that will make the reader say "wow".
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Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (December 9, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0375843345
ISBN-13: 978-0375843341