A spring break mountain-climbing trip could be a chance for Kendal to connect with her distant father. A little adventure and time together seem like a good idea, but there's one problem: the mountain might be cursed. Soon a father-daughter getaway turns dangerous, and they might not make it to the summit. That's the thing about bonding—you have to be alive to do it.
"Fifteen-year-old Kendal has no interest in climbing Mount Hood, but when her mother asks her to accompany her dad, recently returned from an 18-month naval deployment, she agrees to the trip. On their first evening in the lodge, Kendal finds a book, The Atlas of Cursed Places, and grows fearful after reading the entry titled 'The Curse of Mount Hood and Nellie Bly.' There's little time to dwell on this, as Jeremy, their guide, has Kendal and her father up at five in the morning to train and learn safety maneuvers. After starting their trek in darkness, they successfully reach the summit, but as they begin their descent, a fierce storm moves in. When an accident occurs, Kendal must do things she's never imagined in order to save Jeremy and her dad. Short sentences and chapters, gripping text, teen angst, haunting tales, and dangerous weather make this addition to the Atlas of Cursed Places series a good quick pick for readers after some excitement, or librarians looking to add to their high/low shelves."--Booklist
--Website
"In Director's Cut, Alex and his buddies from Edmonds Air Force Base break into the Sanford's Folly movie set, abandoned after a fire in the 1980s. It is rumored to be cursed after the death of the star actor. They realize they are in trouble when bad things start happening to each of them. Their only choice is to brave the hazards of returning to the movie set in the hopes of showing the original movie to the world. In Skeleton Tower, Jason's parents have decided to move yet again to work as caretakers at a historical lighthouse on the coast. Jason is surprised when strange things start happening until he learns of a shipwreck and hidden diary that may hold the clues to a curse. With the help of his sister and the ghost of a long-dead lighthouse keeper, Jason discovers that the only way to break the curse is to risk his life to save the life of another. In Deadman Anchor, Kendall would have preferred to go on a beach vacation, but when her Navy father decides that climbing Mt. Hood would be a good way to bond after his last deployment, Kendall cannot say no. The climb quickly turns hazardous, however, when a sudden blizzard turns up and the other climbers are injured. Bonding turns to surviving as Kendall takes the lead to keep their small group alive and break the curse haunting the mountain.
The Atlas of Cursed Places is a horror series with suspenseful plots and cliff-hangers at the end of every chapter. Geared toward struggling and reluctant readers and written at a fourth-grade reading level, this six-book series is a good alternative to other hi-lo series such as the Bluford Series. Older readers might find the plots and characters somewhat hollow and unrealistic; however, this series fills a niche for readers who need a stepping-stone series to engage them in reading."--VOYA
--Journal
