Since his parents mysteriously disappeared, Christian Cage has been living with his uncle in the sleepy town of Winter, Wisconsin. He's an outsider, an outcast, and he's labeled the weird kid because his only means for self-expression and comfort is his art. He's begun having vivid dreams though, and he finds that in these dreams, he's a boy named David, and he can slip in and out of time - learning his town has a lot of secrets, and many of them involve the Nazi occupation of Germany. As he slips deeper and deeper into the dark past of Winter, Christian begins to wonder if he might just be able to rescue his parents in "the sideways place" in his dreams.

Draw the Dark is one of those books that I've never heard of before, but just happened to surprise me with an original plot, sound characters, and a riveting story. Written by Ilsa J. Bick, Draw the Dark is a cross between YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and it wholeheartedly embraces a creepy, be-afraid-of-the-dark vibe. Written in haunting prose that allows you to get inside the main character, Christian's head, you are sent on a terrifying and intense journey towards the truth with him.

Draw the Dark also turned out to be quite the history lesson. I never knew that the United States housed prisoners of war during WWII (something my text books left out - thank you, public school education.) Furthermore, Draw the Dark gets down tot he psychology of the story, rather than just painting a picture of angst and horror. You will be in the midst of the story. My one problem I had with the story was that I was expecting more of a physical journey to "the sideways place," but that sort of failed to happen.