Trespass Against Us

Gr 10 Up–Two years ago, Riley and his friends Vee and Colton and Riley’s boyfriend Ethan embarked on what promised to be an excellent way to get content for their new Ghost Hawks YouTube channel—exploring the now-defunct Dominic Savio’s School for Troubled Youths, aka Dominic House, an old Catholic facility where a priest and five children disappeared years ago under mysterious circumstances. Tragedy struck again; Ethan disappeared into thin air in an event that left Riley with extensive burn scars on his face and arms. Now, famous ghost-hunting show host Jordan Jones has shown up with a lucrative offer: $25,000 each in return for revisiting the house to find out once and for all if something supernatural resides there. Backed into a corner, Riley agrees to the trip, only to come face to face again with the darkness that calls Dominic House home. But this time, he’s not leaving Ethan behind no matter what. Emotional revelations through dual time lines spur on an occasionally unevenly paced plot, and religious trauma creates the underpinnings of the horrors the group encounters on both trips to Dominic House. Sharply drawn characters are easily distinguished, and the story is propelled by their complex dynamic.