Ferryman (Ferryman Trilogy)

Product Description
After a deadly train crash, the afterlife is waiting for Dylan. But that’s only if she and her intriguing Ferryman can make it across the demon-infested wasteland—and if she can bear to let him go. \nWhen Dylan wakes up after her train has crashed, she thinks she has survived unscathed. But she couldn’t be more mistaken: the bleak landscape around her isn't Scotland, it’s a wasteland—a terrain somehow shaped by her own feelings and fears, a border to whatever awaits her in the afterlife. And the stranger sitting by the train track isn't an ordinary teenage boy. Tristan is a Ferryman, tasked with guiding Dylan’s soul safely across the treacherous landscape, a journey he has made a thousand times before. Only this time, something's different. The crossing, as ever, is perilous, with ravenous wraiths hounding the two at each day’s end, hungry for Dylan’s soul. But as Dylan focuses her strength on survival, with Tristan as protector, challenger, and confidant, she begins to wonder where she is truly meant to be—and what she must risk to get there. An international bestseller with a phenomenal following, the award-winning
Ferryman (with its sequels
Trespassers and
Outcasts) is in development to be a major motion picture.
From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-After she pulls herself from a train crash, Scottish teenager Dylan finds herself in an eerie wilderness, alone except for the mysterious, handsome Tristan, whom she feels compelled to follow. But has Dylan truly survived the crash unharmed? And where is Tristan leading her? Beyond an imaginative rendering of the afterlife, McFall's work is a scrupulously exact rendering of a particular type of melodramatic teenage romantic fantasy, which will delight or aggravate readers according to their mood. The fantasy is that the unexceptional heroine somehow accrues the everlasting love and devotion of an exceptional hero. In this better-written version of the Twilight Bella-Edward dynamic, Tristan is ageless where Dylan is young, strong when she is weak, knowledgeable where she is naive. More positively, Tristan pushes Dylan to be resilient and to become independent of him, even as he craves her attention and the space she makes for him to define himself apart from his immortal role as a shepherd of the dead. While Tristan initially seems to overestimate Dylan's special empathy (Would she be so interested in him if he weren't hot?), Dylan's love inspires her to grow in physical, moral, and emotional strength. Just what readers might learn about functional human relationships is up for debate. However, McFall's depiction of the protagonists' hunger to be loved, Dylan's awkward self-consciousness about her body, and her burgeoning attraction to Tristan is meticulous, excruciating, and believable. VERDICT An escapist romance of limitless love across boundaries of life and death.-Katherine Magyarody, Texas A&M Univ., College Stationα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review
Is it possible for the dead to love another? Is it possible for the ferryman to love someone? Is it possible for the dead to return to this world? McFall answers all of these questions in thoughtful, satisfying ways for the reader. . . . A highly recommend novel for teen readers.
—School Library Connection (starred review)\nWhat happens after we die? This atmospheric, romantic Scottish fantasy offers an intriguing answer. . . . Adding touches of mystery and horror as she goes, McFall reimagines Charon of Greek mythology in this gentle, engrossing love story.
—Booklist\nMcFall’s depiction of the protagonists’ hunger to be loved, Dylan’s awkward self-consciousness about her body, and her burgeoning attraction to Tristan is meticulous, excruciating, and believable. . . . An escapist romance of limitless love across boundaries of life and death.
—School Library Journal\nAn otherworldly romance.